Bell Helicopter [TXT] is working furiously to build its V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft in time for the Army’s joint multirole program (JMR) flight demonstrations in September 2017, a company official said on Wednesday.
“At the end of 2016, what you’ll see is our entire prototype put together with the exception of the rotors installed,” Keith Flail, Bell’s program director of future vertical lift, said at the Association for the U.S. Army annual symposium.
With the Army dependent on its legacy fleet of helicopter into the 2030s and beyond, the JMR technology demonstrator program is seen as critical for advancing rotorcraft technologies. Using the lessons learned from JMR, the Army plans to start a new program of record called Future Vertical Lift (FVL) that will replace the service’s entire helicopter fleet with a family of new aircraft.
Because of current and potentially future budget instability, Bell has made affordability a cornerstone of the V-280 development effort, Flail said. The company is targeting the Valor to be sold at a similar price point as the AH-64E Apache or a special operations version of the UH-60 Black Hawk.
The company rolled out the first V-280 fuselage on Sept. 22 at a ceremony in Wichita, Kan. After sending it to Amarillo, Texas, the fuselage—which was built by Spirit AeroSystems [SPR] with aluminum substructure and a composite skin—will be painted. Then, Bell will begin installing systems into the airframe.
Bell is also working with the Army and General Electric [GE] to prepare the T64-GE-419 engines that will power the aircraft. The first engine recently completed induction and overhaul at the Fleet Readiness Center East in Cherry Point, N.C.
“The second one is right behind it, and then we have two more engines: the spares that will be inducted and overhauled in 2016,” Flail said. Using those engines, the Valor will be able to fly at speeds up to 280 knots, at altitudes up to 6,000 feet and in hot 95-degree temperatures.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] is building the Valor’s mission systems architecture and mission equipment package. One key feature, the Pilotage Distributed Apeture System, connects the display in the pilot’s helmet with six cameras attached to the V-280’s airframe, allowing the pilot to see through the aircraft’s structure.
“You literally can look through the floor when you’re coming in to land if you have brownout types of conditions,” Flail said. “It’s like being inside of Wonder Woman’s jet.”
Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin announced its intent to acquire Sikorsky [UTX], which is working with Boeing [BA] to produce the other JMR contender, the SB-1 Defiant. The companies have worked through issues surrounding Lockheed Martin’s purchase of Sikorsky, and Bell officials are comfortable with Lockheed Martin’s role in building the V-280, Flail said.
“It’s obviously not insignificant that this is going on,” he said. “The leadership has talked, we have the appropriate controls in place [and] the firewalls in place in terms of who is working on which team.”
The FVL requirements and acquisition strategy have not set in stone, but the Army could hold separate competitions for air vehicle and the mission system architecture, which would allow Lockheed Martin to propose its architecture package after the winning aircraft vendor is chosen, he added.