V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype

V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype
V-280 Valor: Bell Starts Building Joint Multi-Role Prototype

Somebody’s finally doing something tangible about the future of Army aviation. Bell Helicopter subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems of Wichita, Kan., has started assembling the composite fuselage for the first prototype V-280 Valor, Bell’s new military tiltrotor. The Valor is sleeker, smaller, and, by design, more Army-friendly than the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, which was built to fit…

Sikorsky Offers S-97 For Armed Aerial Scout Without Flying

AUSA: Visitors to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.’s display at this year’s Association of the United States Army meetings in Washington can hardly miss an eye-popping marketing video the company is showing. Running on a huge flat screen hung at the entrance to the company’s spot on the show floor, the video uses simulation imagery of XBox…

Eurocopter’s X3 Is Cool Enough For James Bond; But Helicopters Aren’t On DoD’s Shopping list

MANASSAS, Va: Buzzing a runway in 200-knot low-level passes and steep, nose-up climbs, Eurocopter’s silver X3 hybrid helicopter looked like something out of a James Bond movie as it performed for the media in late July. The X3 (pronounced “X-cubed”) stopped off at Manassas Regional Airport as part of a U.S. tour that ended last…