Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) company, announced 18 employee winners of the 2012 Lawrence D. Bell Pioneer Award for innovation leadership. With this recognition, four Bell Helicopter teams will advance to the final stage of the Textron competition for the Chairman’s Award for Innovation. The Chairman’s Award honors employees whose exemplary innovations have led to significant improvements and directly contributed to Textron’s growth, globalization, profitability or competitive position.

Winning team innovation projects by category include:

• Productivity: “Large Cell Composite Core for Next Generation Structure” – Donn Hethcock, Paul Oldroyd, Suvankar Mishra, John McCullough and Michael Mackey
• Service: “Longer Life TT-Strap for Bell 206 Operators” – Tom Reilly, Warren Moseley, Daniel Sottiaux, Carlo Capozzo and Joshua Mochache
• Innovation: “Bell 525 Relentless Cockpit Control System” – Brad Linton, Travis Yates and Chad Haugeberg
• Growth: “407GX” – Clive Davis, Elvis Luis, Tuan Bui, Jonathan Williams and Gordon Mooney

The four team finalists were honored at the Lawrence D. Bell Pioneer Award ceremony on September 10 at the Ashton Depot in Fort Worth. Each winning team member received a trophy, $500 cash and the chance to compete against seven other Textron business units for the Textron Chairman’s Award for Innovation.

“We are very proud of our Pioneer Award winners. Without forward-thinking, brilliant minds like these, Bell Helicopter would not be the industry-leader we are today,” said John L. Garrison, president and chief executive officer of Bell Helicopter. “Bell Helicopter has a strong legacy of innovation and engineering excellence and these teams keep with that tradition. We wish them the best of luck in the Textron Chairman’s Award competition,” added Garrison.

Thirty-five Chairman’s Award nominations from across Bell Helicopter were submitted for work performed between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012 in the categories of innovation, growth, productivity and service. Eight finalists were selected and received a certificate of recognition.

Each Textron business unit submits four finalists, one from each category, to the Textron Enterprise Review Committee for final review and consideration. The committee will then choose a winner from each category to receive the Chairman’s Award for Innovation. Chairman’s Award winners each receive $10,000 and a trip for them and their families to the Textron Global Leadership meeting in January in Orlando, Fla.

The Chairman’s Award for Innovation continues to be an important program as Bell Helicopter and Textron remain committed to growing the company by developing ground-breaking technologies and finding creative ways to meet customers’ needs. The competition supports smart risk taking, simplified processes, speed in daily work activities, organic growth and focus on the customer.