Bell Helicopter has completed construction of its first V-280 advanced tiltrotor prototype that is being prepared to fly later this year.
The V-280 Valor program has achieved 100 percent build completion on the prototype aircraft and is preparing for an initial ground run at the company’s Amarillo, Texas, assembly center.
“We remain focused on providing exceptional flexibility in an advanced aircraft with reduced weight, complexity, and cost that offers the military with unmatched range, speed and payload capabilities on the battlefield,” Bell said in a prepared statement. “We will have more updates on the platform soon and remain excited for first flight this fall.”
Valor is one of two industry teams participating in the Army’s Joint Multirole technology demonstration (JMR-TD) that will inform aircraft and system design for the follow-on Future Vertical Lift family of next-generation helicopters.
Bell designed the advanced tiltrotor using lessons learned from production and operation of the V-22 Osprey. The company is seeking to simplify the mechanics of tiltrotor technology that allows the aircraft to fly fast like an airplane and takeoff, hover and land like a helicopter. Bell is a unit of Textron [TXT].
Its only competitor in JMR-TD – which is not technically a competition, but a demonstration of current industry technology for the Army – is the SB-1 Defiant built by Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Sikorsky unit and Boeing [BA]. The Defiant is based on the Sikorsky S-97 Raider, which employs coaxial main rotors and an aft pusher propeller to achieve the same fast-yet-maneuverable capability the Army desires.
Sikorsky’s Defiant is scheduled for a first flight some time in early 2018. The S-97 has been in flight test for over a year. One of the two existing prototypes suffered a hard landing in August, but the company said the mishap will not hinder progress of the program, which is meant to validate the coaxial-rotor design.