AMARILLO, Texas—Bell is preparing its prototype V-280 Valor next-generation tiltrotor for ground-vibration testing as it pushes to achieve a first flight by September of this year.
The company’s entry for the U.S. Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstration (JMR-TD) program is now 93% complete and was due to be rolled out of the hangar for the vibration testing during February, Scott Allen, V-280 build team manager, told Aviation Week during a visit here Jan. 31.
Teams had begun incrementally powering on aircraft systems during December, and were testing the engine starters during the visit. Test instrumentation also has been installed with vibration sensors placed across the airframe and the body of the aircraft.
“It seems like there is a lot of time between now and September,” Allen said. “There is still a lot of testing to be done so that everything is performing as we planned.”
Recently the company finished work on a new test stand with funding support from the City of Amarillo’s Economic Development Corporation. This will allow the company to perform high-power engine runs on the V-280 and the V-22 Osprey, which also is built at the site.
Allen noted that the method of 3D design, an approach also taken with Bell’s commercial 505 and 525, meant that assembly had been a painless process. Systems like the auxiliary power unit, installed in a compartment in the upper fuselage and behind the main wing, had been installed in 15 min., Allen said.
The Valor—what Bell describes as a third-generation tiltrotor—uses the General Electric T64-419 engine from the CH-53 to drive the aircraft’s prop-rotors. However, unlike existing tiltrotor aircraft, the engine itself does not tilt, but remains in a horizontal position driving the prop-rotor through a gearbox. This reduces complexity and the need to certify the engine to operate at different angles.
The prop rotor can be swiveled from 0 deg. at horizontal flight to 95 deg., just beyond the vertical to allow the aircraft to fly backwards out of a landing zone. The positioning of the engines reduces risk to the passengers, who exit from doors on the side of the aircraft.
Bell also has made use of advanced materials; the straight main wing makes use of a composite call IM10, which is not currently commercially available, while elements of the intakes have been produced using additive manufacturing.
The JMR-TD flight test program runs through 2019 and coincides with the study into FVL (Future Vertical Lift) Medium, also known as Capability Set 3, which seeks a common, medium-weight rotary-wing airframe for attack/utility and deep attack/penetration missions.
The helicopter manufacturers are pressing toward first flight in 2017 to prove that their respective configurations are technologically mature enough to enter an FVL acquisition program at Milestone B, the start of full-scale engineering and manufacturing development, instead of a three-year technology maturation phase that could delay service entry from the mid-2020s to early 2030s.