Bell Helicopter opened its Mirabel manufacturing facility in 1986. On display in front of the main office entrance is this Bell 430 with the fictitious registration C-BH86. Originally Bell 222UT N3177U (cn 47503), it was converted to a Bell 230 development aircraft in 1991. A further conversion in 1994 saw the machine stretched into Bell 430 C-GEXP (assigned new cn 43902) with a four blade main rotor to test the new type.

Started life as a Bell 222 (with appropriate c/n) then was converted to a 222B, 222UT and 230, as here, all with same c/n. Later it was converted to a 430 with c/n 43901.