Bell V-280 Valor achieves 280 knots

Bell (Ft. Worth, Texas, U.S.) has announced that its V-280 Valor successfully achieved its namesake cruise speed of 280 knots on Jan. 23 at the company’s Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas, U.S. The aircraft aims to exceed performance of legacy rotorcraft and deliver revolutionary capability for warfighters as part of the Future of Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

The V-280’s design and fabrication leverages Bell’s tiltrotor experience and composites expertise. Carbon fiber-reinforced composites are used in the wing, fuselage and tail. 

The V-280’s latest flight statistics include:

• Forward flight at 280 knots true airspeed
• Over 85 hours of flight and more than 180 rotor turn hours
• In-flight transitions between cruise mode and vertical takeoff and landing
• 45-degree banked turns at 200 knots indicated airspeed
• 4500 feet per minute rate of climb and sustained flight at 11,500 feet altitude
• Single flight ferry of over 370 miles
• Demonstrated low and high-speed agility with fly-by-wire controls

As the program moves into 2019, V-280 flight testing will continue to prove out Bell’s key performance parameters and reduce FVL risk in the U.S. Army led Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program. The next stages will expand the performance envelope highlighting further low-speed agility maneuvers, angles of bank and autonomous flight.

“It is a remarkable achievement to hit this airspeed for the V-280 Valor in just over a year of flight testing,” says Keith Flail, vice president of Advanced Vertical Lift Systems at Bell. “Beyond the exemplary speed and agility of this aircraft, this significant milestone is yet another proof point that the V-280 is mature technology, and the future is now for FVL capability set 3.”

“Cruising at twice the speed of legacy helicopters, with double the range, really changes the way the U.S. military can enable multi-domain operations,” says Ryan Ehinger, V-280 program manager at Bell. “By eliminating forward refueling points alone, leaders can focus on operational goals while minimizing logistical burdens.”