Kacey Roberts
Bell Textron has selected its Wichita, Kansas, facility to house its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft fuselage assembly operations, with assembly activities set to begin in the coming months.
The company also chose several of its advanced manufacturing facilities in Texas, such as the Advanced Composite Center in Fort Worth, to conduct assembly support work, as well as its Amarillo facility for final aircraft assembly, Textron said Wednesday.
Bell Textron previously opened a 47,000-square-foot development facility for weapon systems integration programs, including FLRAA, in Arlington, Texas. The site will integrate mission systems like avionics, sensors and hydraulics with fly-by-wire systems for the FLRAA program.
Lisa Atherton, president and CEO of Bell, commented, “As Bell prepares for the next stage of FLRAA’s Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase, we are committed to investing in advanced manufacturing to ensure we deliver exceptional performance at an affordable cost to our customer.”
