He hasn’t flown in it yet, but the object of Lazzara’s aerospace affection is now the Osprey’s high-tech younger cousin, the Bell V-280 Valor. “Given the choice, I’d never fly a helicopter if I could fly a tiltrotor.” “I’m a total zealot,” Lazzara recently told R&WI.
It’s with tiltrotors that his heart remains. For practical aviation advice you can trust, contact us at: Follow us on LinkedIn and on Twitter for our latest updates.Through a 26-year military career flying light scout helicopters then lumbering maritime cargo aircraft, Frank Lazzara ended with 11 years as a CV-22 pilot for U.S. It will allow some US Army aviation units to transition to a longer range platform but we anticipate a mixed fleet for perhaps a generation.Īerossurance has extensive air safety, operations, airworthiness, human factors, aviation regulation and safety analysis experience. Will the V-280 actually replace the Black Hawk? We think not. “So if you look … at a very high level, the factors or variables of performance, cost and schedule, all were considered and the combination of those are defined explicitly and evaluated.” “No one thing really drove the decision,” he said. He described “best-value” as a “comprehensive analysis of a variety of factors.” “We’re not going to talk specifics about the evaluation, but what we were seeking is the best-value approach,” he said. When asked what put the tiltrotor ahead of the competition, Barrie declined to elaborate. Robert Barrie, program executive officer for aviation, told reporters at a media roundtable. Over the next 19 months, an initial obligation of $232 million will fund Bell’s preliminary design and development of a virtual prototype that the Army will then use to proceed with the acquisition, Army Brig. The aircraft will be powered by the Rolls-Royce AE1107F turboshaft, a variant of the V-22’s engine.
Just short of 5 years after the first flight of the V-280 the US Army awarded Bell a contract with a total ceiling of $1.3 billion. Karem Aircraft and AVX Aircraft are validating their FVL concepts using non-flying test hardware.įLRAA Contract Award (UPDATE 5 December 2022)
#V 280 valor cockpit update#
UPDATE 26 December 2018: The 30,000lb (13.6t) prototype SB>1 has been rolled out and is due to fly early in 2019. This combines a coaxial rotor with a pusher propeller. Team Valor’s main rival for FVL is a team of Sikorsky (now part of Bell’s team-mate Lockheed Martin!) and former Bell V-22 partner Boeing, who joined forces to develop the SB>1 Defiant. The V-280 program brings together Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, GE, Moog, IAI, TRU Simulation & Training, Astronics, Eaton, GKN Aerospace, Lord, Meggitt and Spirit AeroSystems (who make the fuselage) – collectively referred to as Team Valor. V-280 would be offered to replace Sikorsky H-60s and Bell H-1s under the Army/ Marine Corps FVL-Medium or Capability Set 3 programme. The JMR-TD program is the R&D precursor to the Department of Defense’s Future Vertical Lift ( FVL) programme that will be the basis for the replacement of the majority of US military rotorcraft and undoubtedly reshape the US rotorcraft industry. The Bell V-280 Valor program is part of the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) initiative, started in 2013, which runs into 2019. Construction of the V-280 began in June 2015. UPDATE 29 January 2019: Bell to roll back V-280 funding until US Army competitionīell plans to make no more significant investments in its V-280 Valor tiltrotor until the US Army makes a commitment to Future Vertical Lift Capability Set 1 or Capability Set 3 programmes.Īfter the V-280 reached its 280kt (519km/h) speed goal on 23 January, Bell believes that it sufficiently demonstrated the tiltrotor technology.
UPDATE 9 January 2019: Flying the Bell V-280 Valor: Tru Simulation Technical Demonstrator UPDATE 18 December 2018: V-280 Reducing Risk For Future Army Tiltrotor, Bell Says UPDATE 20 June 2018: Bell’s V-280 Valor shows off agility, speed in first public flight demo UPDATE 15 May 2018: V-280 has now completed a transition to forward flight and achieved 190 kts.
The first US Army pilot flew it 7 February 2018. UPDATE 26 February 2018: The V-280 has now flown for 9 hours and been rotors running for 56 hours. It features a triple-redundant fly by wire (FBW) control system. The V-280 had previously conducted ground runs on a test stand at Amarillo, TX: In the event of an engine failure, power is transmitted by a cross-shaft, similar to that on the V-22, from the operative engine to the opposite proprotor. Bell V-280 Valor First Flight (Credit: Bell Helicopter)
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