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The V-280 Valor comes in for a roll-on landing during its first public flight demonstration at Bell's Amarillo, Texas, production facility. (Jen Judson/Staff)
Posted on 12/05/2022 2:54:57 PM PST by BenLurkin
After years of development, prototyping and test flights, the Army today announced that Bell Textron’s Valor tiltrotor has won its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition to be the successor to the aging UH-60 Black Hawk and a key component of the Army’s future force.
The announcement gives Bell a massive victory not just in America but with the global community of 28 Black Hawk operators, many of whom are likely to follow the US Army’s lead when looking for a replacement in the future.
The exact requirements the service laid out for the aircraft remain closely held, but allowed the companies to produce two strikingly different designs: Bell’s tiltrotor Valor aircraft against Sikorsky-Boeing’s coaxial rotor Defiant X.
The V-280 Valor comes in for a roll-on landing during its first public flight demonstration at Bell's Amarillo, Texas, production facility. (Jen Judson/Staff)
(Excerpt) Read more at breakingdefense.com ...
Interesting machine, but I can assure that politics was a significant factor considered by the Pentagon.
“Helicopter: A million parts rapidly rotating around an oil leak waiting for metal fatigue to set in”
A tilt rotor design? Myriad mechanical problems and more dangerous to land than a helicopter with a centrally located rotor.
Yup.
Te more moving parts, the more things that can - AND WILL - go wrong.
My SIL, former Army intelligence says the Apache helicopter design causes it to eat their transmissions.
“A tilt rotor design? Myriad mechanical problems and more dangerous to land than a helicopter with a centrally located rotor.”
Osprey.....paging Mr. Osprey.....please pick up the red courtesy phone.
What could possibly go wrong? :(
It’s fast and more redundant than a true rotary bird. Can fly with one engine driving both shafts. Better range.
It can also be armored up and armed akin to an A-10.
I wonder what Radar Cross Section (RCS) is required by the system spec.
It appears to me that Bell Textron’s Valor is stealthier than the Sikorsky-Boeing Defiant X.
This fixes a lot of the osprey issues.
Notably the engines are fixed while the drive shafts rotate. A driveshaft runs through the middle, so either engine can run the bird by itself.
2400 mile range at 350 mph.
The tragedy is that most helicopters do not need to be this complicated or have nearly the suite of avionics that they put on them.
At it’s heart it is a flying truck. Think how many more we could have if they would follow this maxim.
Thanks to “lobbyist” and the revolving door from the pentagon to high paying defense industry jobs it is a rotary F-22 and everyone builds something fancy to put on it.
Yep, I preferred the “more conventional” (relatively) “Defiant X”:
https://www.boeing.com/features/innovation-quarterly/2021/04/defiant-x.page
(Sikorsky-Boeing)
Agree. Especially when the props are forward.
V tail.
“A tilt rotor design? Myriad mechanical problems and more dangerous to land than a helicopter with a centrally located rotor.”
But faster and with a much greater range.
“Interesting machine, but I can assure that politics was a significant factor considered by the Pentagon.”
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
“10% for the Big Guy!”
After looking at the posted image in it’s original size, I see what you mean. However, that’s still one hell of a lot of moving parts, and doesn’t solve the problem of transitioning from vertical, to horizontal flight which was the downfall of many of the Ospreys, and many of our servicemen, and women.
Osprey crash on carrier deck due to one of the rotors being over the deck end losing lift due to rotor wash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGVpFmOShAg
Will troops drop out the bottom like in the movie “Edge of Tomorrow”?
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