Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 47 diaries/engineering notebooks, containing highly detailed information and data relating to the design and development of the Bell Model 30 (which became the Model 47), the UH-1 Huey and the 206 JetRanger series, among other craft.

Biographical / Historical

Bartram "Bart" Kelley (1909-1998) was a pioneering and distinguished helicopter engineer whose career was spent working for the Bell Aircraft and Bell Helicopter companies. Hired by Arthur M. Young, Kelley was instrumental in the design, testing, and development of such Bell aircraft as the H-13 Sioux, UH-1 Iroquois, AH-1G Cobra, OH-58 Kiowa, and XV-15. He became chief engineer of Bell's helicopter division in the late 1940s. After retirement in 1975, he served as a consultant for Bell Helicopter Textron. Bart Kelley was a fellow of the Helicopter Society, the American Institute of Aeronautics, the Royal Aeronautical Society, and the Society of Aeronautical Engineers. He was inducted into the United States Army Aviation Hall of Fame in 1994.