A spokesman for the firm said the tiltrotor has done its job to show what their offering can do. The US Army is looking for next-gen rotorcraft to replace its aging fleet, especially one that can replace the UH-60 Black Hawk.
Next-gen helicopters
According to June 24 statement by Bell, the Valor will be officially retired from the FLARAA competition, reported Defense News.
The company was chosen to be part of the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator program, with the prototype flying in December 2017 for its initial flight demo. Over the next three years, it was put through its paces to see if it passes the FLRAA requirements to win the army contract.
Valor was further flight-tested beyond the Army JMR program that was a two-part demo to see how it performs and checking how reliable the tilt rotor is.
— Bell (@BellFlight) October 10, 2017
So, far Bell has been able to qualify for the second phase of the risk-reduction effort. The goal is to have two initial designs that cover major avionics components and its weapon system, which satisfies all the acceptable performance data that follows the army testing schedule.
The army contract for FLRAA
The final stage for the army's final request for proposal from competing aerospace firms is the official start of the selection from all designs. Bell will go head-to-head with Sikorsky Boeing that made the SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter, which was part of the JMR program before. The V-280 Valor Prototype provided the data needed to move to the next stage.
On its way to choose two new vertical-lift aircraft in 2030, the army has organized this competition to build the winning design. Another category is future attack reconnaissance aircraft, or FARA prototype, to have a design ready by 2022 for the first flight.
Lessons learned from the Valor tilt-rotor
Despite the early retirement of the next-gen rotorcraft, it has tested the technology and showed how to improve on the next offering for the FLRAA competition.
To check how the chopper will do in actual flight, the V-280 had 214 hours with several technical demonstrations of its abilities. They are movement at low speed, long-range characteristics, and going 305-knots at cruising speed. The maximum speed needed to qualify is 230 to 250 knots for the FLRAA requirements, noted Vertical Mag.
Assigned to test the V-280 in 15 flights were five army test pilots flying the tilt-rotor said Bell. All the feedback and information from flights came from those involved in the project and were involved in the design of the prototype.
The company provided the army all the data to explain how their aircraft is designed. One aspect is the modular systems that can be upgraded to make the platform more efficient during its service life.
Ryan Ehinger, the company vice president, and program director for the FLRAA made a statement that mentioned it took eight years to complete the process, from testing to validating all the data related to the Valor project, cited Defense Daily.
He added the final product is reflective of the digital simulations, backed up by real-world performance that shows the army the V-280 is a reliable design. Another Bell executive Keith Flail added the Bell-280 Valor Prototype was necessary to achieve what the army wanted.
