Posted on 12/05/2022 4:46:31 PM PST by e_castillo
PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT) announced today that Bell Textron Inc., a Textron company, has been awarded the development contract for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The award is based on Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor that was developed and tested as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) program that began in 2013. The V-280 progressed through design, manufacturing, and more than three years of rigorous flight testing that provided extensive data validating the technical and operational advantages of the aircraft for the long-range assault mission.
"We are honored that the U.S. Army has selected the Bell V-280 Valor as its next-generation assault aircraft," said Scott C. Donnelly, Textron’s chairman and chief executive officer. "We intend to honor that trust by building a truly remarkable and transformational weapon system to meet the Army’s mission requirements. We are excited to play an important role in the future of Army Aviation."
“This is an exciting time for the U.S. Army, Bell, and Team Valor as we modernize the Army’s aviation capabilities for decades to come,” said Mitch Snyder, president and CEO of Bell. “Bell has a long history supporting Army Aviation and we are ready to equip Soldiers with the speed and range they need to compete and win using the most mature, reliable, and affordable high-performance long-range assault weapon system in the world.”
This award builds on a decade of the V-280 Valor’s progress through design, manufacturing, and thorough testing to demonstrate that this aircraft will deliver on the FLRAA program requirements. Bell and its industry partners have systematically validated the V-280 aircraft and their modular open systems approach in collaboration with the Army.
The initial contract refines the weapon system design, sustainment, digital enterprise, manufacturing, systems integration, flight-testing, and airworthiness qualification.
(Excerpt) Read more at businesswire.com ...
Compare and contrast to a helicopter....
Will it be electric? What is its carbon footprint?
Valor. What a stupid name. I guess the woke Army can’t use Amerindian names any more. Nope. No more tributes to worthy foes. Just insipid committee chosen n generic names. Gag.
Guess I just like the older stuff
Nickname it the Zuni.
So ‘they’ have worked the kinks out of the Osprey?
Another Osprey?
I cannot fathom the US Army leaving the foundational utility/assault rotary wing aircraft for a tilt-rotor.
From Huey to Black Hawk to, Osprey? Sad.
Picture air cavalry arriving on tilt-rotors. Pathetic.
Top speed: 322 mph
Range: 2,417 mi
Length: 66′
I think “Gold Plated Money Pit” is more likely.
Gonna need both air and ground superiority to use that in combat. Looks like some shmoe with a rifle could lob bullets into those exposed engines.
I hope that it’s just that the cowls are removed, not a design flaw...
Ping.
That’s an early prototype, maybe it got better.
Boy, that’ll last a long time in a radar-threat environment.
We started training low and slow again, and the Army picks a lumbering, large radar signature aircraft that “is fast.”
I gotta retire soon.
Fiasco.
So how do they determine the winner of the competition, whoever offers the largest bribe?
Tilt roters can get you farther away from your supply lines and out of range of your QRF faster. They also have all of the mechanical reliability of variable geometry aircraft with less crash survivability and the type of loiter time that makes them very unlikely to be pulled from VIP transport missions to be converted into aerial scouts or gunships. They look great in political campaign commercials, video games, and for football stadium flybys, making their surviability in a budget cut environment nearly perfect.
Sorry, that may have been just a bit sarcastic.
Yeah, I fear air-air and surface-air missiles are a LOT faster. As you know all too well.
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