Jane Edwards
Textron’s Bell subsidiary has conducted a flight demonstration of its proposed offering for the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift program, the Dallas Morning News reported Friday.
The pilots flew the V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft on Thursday at Bell’s flight research center in Arlington, Va., 10 months after the plane made its initial flight at the company’s Amarillo, Texas-based facility.
Bell has teamed up with Lockheed Martin to supply sensors and avionics for V-280, which is designed to carry up to 14 troops and four crew members and travel at a speed of up to 280 knots or approximately 320 miles per hour.
Company officials said V-280 includes new manufacturing and design features such as sliding doors, a straight wing and an engine nacelle kept in a fixed position.
A team of Boeing and Lockheed’s Sikorsky subsidiary has proposed the SB-1 Defiant coaxial aircraft for the FVL program that seeks to replace the service’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawk and Apache helicopters.
