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The Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter, model 206

The Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter was introduced to the civilian market in 1967.  According to a Transport Canada write-up, the newly created Dominion-Pegasus company supplied eight Bell Jet Ranger Helicopters for Expo 67.  The start-up owners of the Dominion-Pegasus were Jack Fleming and Bob Gillies (who was proprietor of Inspiration Helicopters (Pegasus Airlifts) which originated out of Burlington, Ontario.)   "They started up Dominion-Pegasus, supplying Bell helicopters for an air taxi and tourist flying operation at the Canadian International Exposition (Expo 67) in Montreal, Que.," writes Bob Petite of Transport Canada. "The temporary new company supplied both piston Bell 47J and the new generation turbine Bell Jet Rangers for the air service. The Bell Jet Rangers were some of the  first in Canada. Eight helicopters flew over 100,000 passengers between April and October." At Expo 67, the landing area was called the Heliport located near the Ferry Service at La Ronde.  As noted from the Transport Canada write-up, and upon further information from the Expo 67 Official Guide book, air taxi service provided visitors by means of a direct connection with the Montreal Airport. Additional research culled from the web revealed a pilot that flew one of the helicopters at Expo 67.  His name: John Schultz. "While working as chief pilot for Dominion Helicopters for many years, Schultz did rides at Expo 67 in Montreal, where he flew some of the very first Jet Rangers newly arrived in Canada. The tours he did at Expo displayed the cutting edge technology to the public," writes Helicopters in a report. To date, the proprietor of this website has seen only one actual photograph of the Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter taken at Expo 67. The black and white photo was murky and unsuitable for publication. The photo clearly revealed the "expo 67" lettering marked on the craft thereby making it easy for Expo visitors to identify for their official air taxi or tour rides. It is not known to this researcher whether all eight helicopters used the same identical paint scheme and further research needs to be made to make such a determination. But by way of an example, the photo presented here is exactly the same manufactured model that was being used at Expo 67 with the only difference being the paint scheme, different from the black and white photo that I saw.  Regarding the production history of this craft, "Model 206 has since been updated three times, with the 206B Jet Ranger II arriving in 1971 and the 206B-3 Jet Ranger III with its modified tail rotor and more powerful engine in 1977," writes the High Torque website. "The basic shape and design remain unchanged since 1967."  But in their recent update it noted that "[o]n 24 January 2008, Bell Helicopter Textron announced plans to terminate production of the Bell 206B-3 model after current order commitments are fulfilled in 2010." Bibliography: Transport Canada: Aviation Safety Vortex - Jack Fleming An Aviation Pioneer Remembered, written by Bob Petite Helicopters - Canada's National Rotary-Wing Resource Centre: Pure Gold High-Torque: Bell Jet Ranger Expo 67 - The Official Guide book published by Maclean-Hunter May 21, 2019 update: Below are two photos of the actual Jet Ranger helicopter at Expo 67. Said Bill: Hi John: I came across your site and noticed you wanted a pic of a Jet Ranger as used at Expo 67. Here's a still from a home movie my dad made when he took me for a ride in '67. Dominion Pegasus marked, just like you said. Cheers......Bill