Kill Army Helo Upgrades & Build Super Chopper: Bell V-280 Exec
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AMARILLO, TEX.: Bell Helicopter is so confident in their new V-280 tilt-rotor prototype that they want the Pentagon to accelerate the Future Vertical Lift program – which they think the V-280 will win – by “five to eight years.” [Click here for our head-to-head comparison of the V-280 and its rival, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1] That… Keep reading →
MUX By 2026: Marines Want Armed Drone ASAP To Escort V-22
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When V-22 Ospreys full of Marines take to the skies 10 years from now, they could be escorted by armed high-speed drones called MUX. That’s become the Marine Corps plan because drones let you do things differently. Doing without a pilot inside makes it possible to build unorthodox aircraft that would work poorly carrying tender humans. You… Keep reading →
DARPA Do-It-All Drone Among New VTOLs Nearing Flight
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A bevy of new vertical take off and landing (VTOL) aircraft conceived to take the military beyond the speed, range and altitude limits of helicopters are scheduled to fly over the next two years. None looks more like science fiction becoming science fact than a sort of flying candy crane formerly known as “Transformer.” What is now… Keep reading →
Fly With Us (Kinda) In Bell’s V-280 Valor Tiltrotor VIDEO
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AUSA: I’m not a pilot, but today I played a copilot in a flight simulator Bell Helicopter brought to the Association of the United States Army annual convention to show what its next tiltrotor, the V-280 Valor, will be able to do. As my pilot in the simulator, former Army aviator and test pilot Steve Kihara,… Keep reading →
Month After Us, Bell Unveils V-247 Vigilant Tiltrotor Drone
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Bell Helicopter confirmed Thursday what the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps, Lt. Gen. Jon “Dog” Davis, told Breaking Defense a month ago. The company is designing a new tiltrotor drone about the size of the Air Force’s armed MQ-9 Reaper, with similar capabilities, that it hopes the Marines will buy. They call it the V-247… Keep reading →
EXCLUSIVE: Meet Bell’s V-247, Armed Tiltrotor Drone For Marines
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PENTAGON: A sleek little model sits on the desk of Lt. Gen. Jon “Dog” Davis, Marine deputy commandant for aviation. What is that, we asked? The next tiltrotor Bell Helicopter Textron hopes the Marine Corps will buy. But it’s not the V-280 Valor, the new manned tiltrotor Bell plans to fly next year. It’s an… Keep reading →
V-22 Refueling Contract Highlights Close Ties To F-35
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When the Marine Corps developed the V-22 Osprey in the 1980s, the vision was pretty simple: fly troops ashore in amphibious assaults launched from beyond the range of anti-ship missiles. Now they’re turning the Osprey into a gas station. The Marines clearly envision the tiltrotor as a sort of flying Swiss Army knife. One clear example… Keep reading →
Bell Puts Wings On Its Next-Gen Tiltrotor, V-280
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The future of tilt rotor aviation is taking shape, quite literally, at the Bell Helicopter factory in Fort Worth, where the company attached the wing of its prototype V-280 Valor to the fuselage. Now we can see in real life, not just computer drawings, what one vision for the military’s Future Vertical Lift aircraft will look… Keep reading →
Magical Navy V-22 Buy: Now You See ‘Em, Now You Don’t
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A recent University of Michigan study found that poor families often pay higher prices for necessities because they lack enough cash on hand to make bulk purchases at lower unit prices. This “poverty penalty” could soon apply in defense acquisition. A potential case in point: The V-22 Osprey tiltrotor transport. After years of hesitation, the… Keep reading →
V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype
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Somebody’s finally doing something tangible about the future of Army aviation. Bell Helicopter subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, Kan., has started assembling the composite fuselage for the first prototype V-280 Valor, Bell’s new military tiltrotor. The Valor is sleeker, smaller, and, by design, more Army-friendly than the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, which was built to fit… Keep reading →