Lockheed Martin has demonstrated a pilot visual system aboard a Bell Helicopter-built V-280 Valor tiltrotor during a series of flights that occurred in Fort Worth, Texas.

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More than 375 V-22 Osprey tiltrotors, built by a Boeing-Bell Helicopter joint venture, have recorded more than 450K flight hours in support of multiple missions worldwide to date.

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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 […] More

Northrop Grumman has flown an MQ-8C Fire Scout autonomous helicopter for the first time at Trent Lott International Airport in Moss Point, Miss., as part of flight tests. MQ-8C is a modified version of the Bell 407 platform and completed performance assessments aboard the U.S. Navy‘s USS Coronado littoral combat ship in July, the company said Friday.  Melissa Packwood, program director […] More

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy have demonstrated the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter with other autonomous assets to hunt sea mines, Flightglobal reported Thursday. Fire Scout demonstrated its situational awareness capability and capacity to communicate with a submersible drone and a small unmanned surface ship to perform underwater mine sweeping operations at the service’s […] More

The joint venture of Boeing and Textron’s Bell Helicopter subsidiary has secured a $74.2 million contract to repair 23 items the U.S. Navy uses on the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office will perform work at contractor facilities located in Fort Worth, Texas, and Ridley Park, Pa., through August next year. The Naval Supply Systems Command […] More

A joint venture between Boeing and Bell Helicopter aims to begin the MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft’s midair refueling trials in early 2019 to achieve full service capability in 2020, AIN Online reported Wednesday. The effort to include a refueling function in the Osprey aims to eliminate the reliance of the U.S. Marine Corps‘ Air Combat Elements […] More

The U.S. Army has issued a draft solicitation for industry designs and development plans for the service’s future attack reconnaissance helicopter prototypes scheduled for launch in 2023, Defense News reported Saturday. The Army stated in its solicitation that it is seeking an optionally manned rotorcraft with reduced cognitive workload, increased operational tempo and advanced teaming […] More

South Korea’s defense acquisition program administration plans to recompete a potential $155 million project to supply the South Korean army and navy with a total of 41 training helicopters, Defense News reported Friday. It was stated that the reason for the recompete was ‘price issues’. Both Bell’s (formerly Bell Helicopter) 505 Jet Ranger and the Leonardo SW-4 aircraft are competing to […] More

Textron‘s Bell Helicopter subsidiary expects to complete UH-1Y Venom helicopter deliveries to the U.S. Marine Corps before the end of 2018. Bell said Thursday it will also continue delivering the AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter, the Venom’s sister model, to the service branch through 2022. Both helicopters are built on the UH-1 Iroquois and AH-1 Cobra models, which are part of […] More

Boeing and Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky subsidiary have begun testing the SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter in preparation for its initial flight as part of the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role program, Defense News reported Wednesday. The service has started to evaluate two flight demonstrator aircraft – Defiant and Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor – through the JMR initiative […] More

A joint venture of Bell Helicopter and Boeing has received a $69.6 million modification under a U.S. Navy contract to update the configuration of three MV-22 Osprey aircraft units. Under the modification, the Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office will apply Block C upgrades to MV-22 aircraft as part of a common configuration-readiness and modernization effort for the V-22 fleet, the Defense Department said Tuesday. The Navy […] More