The aspect attachment to the V-280 Joint Multi position technology Demonstrator, or JMR-TD, came aboutlately at the company‘s plane meeting center in Amarillo, Texas.
“The V-280 wing, nacelles and fuselage are now assembled into the plane we’ve got designed as the following era tiltrotor,” said Lisa Atherton, government vp of army business development for Bell Helicopter. “that is a chief milestone.”
The V-280 Valor is designed to offer agility, velocity, range, and payload competencies at an cheap pricefor the U.S. army. First flight for the fixed-wing, vertical takeoff-and-landing demonstrator is expected toarise in September 2017.
Bell Helicopters is assured the V-280 application will then be able to enter the entire scale Engineering,production and improvement phase of the program.
“The V-280 tiltrotor is designed with era improvements that substantially reduce danger and fee,permitting the branch of defense to area future vertical elevate to the warfighter far earlier than formerlyexpected,” Atherton stated. “we’ve got progressed the producing tactics to reach at a progressiveaircraft with reduced sustainment expenses and simplified protection approaches.”
The V-280 has an anticipated cruise velocity of 280 knots and a fight range of among 500 and 800 nautical miles.
Bell said V-280 will perform a tethered power-up on the Bell Helicopter facility in Amarillo inside the firsthalf of of 2017.
