Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program

[Music] [Music] Washington bells V 280 Valor prototype exceeded 280 knots this week making good on the aircraft's namesake speed the company announced this afternoon and it will fly faster before it's done a bell executive told me in an interview the news is the latest public triumph for bells tiltrotor technology at a time when its rival for the army led future vertical lift program the Sikorsky Boeing sb1 defiant is still in ground testing after repeated delays and who incidentally or otherwise army secretary mark Kasper went out of his way this afternoon to praise fvl as a model for army modernization just over an hour before Bell emailed me about its breakthrough army secretary Mark Esper happened to be singing the praises of future vertical lift while he didn't cite either competitor by name and he didn't mention the V 280 speed milestone he may well not have known of it although some in the army certainly did Esper noted that only one of the two competitors is already doing flight tests there always is a risk of schedule slips or cost overruns and you have to manage that esperan told reporters when quizzed about a recent skeptical GAO report on army modernisation but our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements so our each doesn't exceed our grasp a good example is future vertical lift Esper went on unprompted by any prior question about the program the prototyping has been exceptional we have one aircraft flying the other one's supposed to fly soon it's really helped us identify what's in the realm of the possible so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past what mistakes does he mean well the Army has an unhappy history of setting ambitious goals a stealthy helicopter a tank small enough to fit in a c-130 transport and then canceling the program when it realized they were impossible or unaffordable now as the service strives to modernize for major war it's radically reorganizing its entire acquisition system for greater speed which the GAO report said could easily go awry but espera argues this time is different there has to be room for growth but we're not looking to develop field something that is brand new and not ready to go the FEL prototype program officially known as the joint multi-role tech demonstrator JM rtd long predates this new army acquisition approach it officially began in 2011 but those years of work are coming to fruition at the perfect time 280 knots isn't the limit an exultant Bell executive told me in a quick phone call our sprint speed our - speed so to speak will probably be in excess of 280 knots said Carl Kaufmann director of sales and strategy for advanced vertical lift systems we are not sure exactly where it's going to go yet I mean computer model certainly give us a good indicator of what we're going to get you in the design of the aircraft but until we fly in and continue to expand the envelope we're not sure exactly where that airspeed is going to fall now the prototype that made the 280 knot flight wasn't carrying cargo or troops just its usual testing instruments the company acknowledged but the design should be able to hit 280 knots even with a full combat load they said this isn't just a neat looking number max speed does matter militarily in very specific circumstances when you're trying to dash through enemy air defenses before they can lock on to you and shoot you down that's an increasing concern as the u.s. refocuses from fighting low tech Taliban and Isis regulars to advanced adversaries like Russia and China whose military's notoriously bristle with dense air defenses but you can't stay up - speed forever what's most operationally relevant is the cruise speeds you can sustain throughout a long flight without burning up your fuel or burning out your engines the whole reason to build the tiltrotor is to be able to take off lend and hover like a helicopter beget the cruise speed and range of a turboprop plan we are looking for a speed that's probably a little less than that that is 280 knots for long-range cruise just based on fuel efficiency Kaufmann said by way of comparison the standard transport helicopter the V 280 is meant to replace the venerable but much upgraded a 60 Blackhawk cruises it a much more sedate rate of about 150 knots 172 mph 53% of the 280s namesake speed the heavily armed and armoured ah-64 Apache gunship a very different kind of aircraft cruises up to 176 mph Bell likes to say that the 280 flies twice as fast and twice as far as legacy helicopters which is really rounding the numbers in their favor but it's still a reasonable approximation of what testing shows so far that said the V 280 hasn't done many long-range test flights yet its longest run was from its production site man Amarillo to bells test facility in Arlington Texas about 370 miles that distance is already 16% more than the maximum range of the uh-60 317 miles for the latest and model unless it trades cargo space for extra fuel tatics we're very satisfied with the performance of the aircraft in the fuel burn rate Coffman will meet the brains parameter as well the targets is 575 - 920 miles 500 to 800 nautical miles depending on the mission profile that leaves one last big challenge for the V 280 agility with two huge rotors side by side a tilt rotor flies very differently from a traditional helicopter and archrival Sikorsky argues their competitors aircraft won't be as maneuverable at low speeds and low altitudes and tight spaces such rigidity of the X is vital for the army which needs to land assault troops and in retrieve casualties from jungles mountains and huge mega cities but so do the Marines and Air Force Special Operations Command which have used bells earlier larger v-22 Osprey tilt-rotor for years without complaint the V 280 design incorporates all the lessons from the v-22 and it's also about half the size having never fielded tiltrotors before the Army's certainly concerned about the low speed agility Kaufmann said but the customers been out here and seen the aircraft perform and they are getting very comfortable that the aircraft's going to have the agility required [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: U.S. Military Times

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Id: vmr4GIRBjs8

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 02 2019