Bell V-280 Valor
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Correct, classic SDB1
Here is a link to a C-130 dropping Laser SDB1 (yes, there is such an animal). It's a massive pic so I won't embed it.
https://media.defense.gov/2016/Dec/16/2 ... 8-0080.JPG
It can do Hellfires too.
Here is a link to a C-130 dropping Laser SDB1 (yes, there is such an animal). It's a massive pic so I won't embed it.
https://media.defense.gov/2016/Dec/16/2 ... 8-0080.JPG
It can do Hellfires too.
"The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese."
Bell’s Next-Generation Tiltrotor Takes Flight
Bell Helicopter’s third-generation tiltrotor prototype, the V-280 Valor, achieved first flight at the company’s plant in Amarillo, Texas, on Dec. 18.
A Bell spokeswoman confirmed that the V-280 took flight at 2:03 p.m. Central time, although the exact flight duration has not yet been confirmed.
The first flight follows a series of ground tests over the past weeks, in which the wheels were expected to leave the ground momentarily. The company spokeswoman says the aircraft flew long enough on Dec. 18 for the event to be counted as a first flight, and it landed back down on the tarmac safely...
http://aviationweek.com/vertical-flight ... 423577a2aa
I see that they are still blurring the region around the gearbox.
Einstein got it backward: one cannot prevent a war without preparing for it.
Uncertainty: Learn it, love it, live it.
Uncertainty: Learn it, love it, live it.
I'm surprised they don't put a polymer inner sleeve to completely protect it from the elements and hide what's going on inside the gearbox.
V-280 Valor hits cruise speeds
WASHINGTON — Bell’s V-280 Valor tilt-rotor demonstrator has now flown in cruise mode, reaching 190 knots.
To achieve cruise mode, the rotors in the V-280 pivot from vertical lift to fully forward-facing. While the company reached 190 knots in recent flight tests, it will continue to expand the envelope until it reaches an expected speed of 280 knots, a company spokesman told Defense News on May 15...
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018/0 ... se-speeds/
Best read there.
We Got a Closer Look at the Flying V-280 Valor
https://warisboring.com/we-got-a-closer ... rd%20Brief
More details and includes video
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018/0 ... ight-demo/
We Got a Closer Look at the Flying V-280 Valor
https://warisboring.com/we-got-a-closer ... rd%20Brief
More details and includes video
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018/0 ... ight-demo/
Bell Plans More Tech Advances As Valor Adds Flight Time
AMARILLO, Texas—Bell Helicopter plans to add 360-deg. pilot’s vision capability to its V-280 Valor demonstrator this year and also will test autonomous operation of the tiltrotor in a systems integration laboratory (SIL), executives said June 18...
Plans call for integrating Lockheed Martin’s Pilotage Distributed Aperture System (PDAS) on the Valor this year, Bell executives said. Comparable to the electro-optical DAS system that Northrop Grumman supplies on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter, the PDAS will provide pilots and crew with a 360-deg. spherical view outside the aircraft, supporting situational awareness, target tracking, threat detection and degraded visual environment operations, said Paul Wilson, V-280 chief engineer.
The PDAS consists of six midwave infrared (IR) cameras distributed around the aircraft, a mission computer processor and a display element, which for the Valor will be a monocle mounted on flight helmets as well as a head-down display. Lockheed Martin’s Missiles and Fire Control unit in Orlando, Florida, is supplying the IR sensors and system software; its Rotary and Missions Systems unit in Owego, New York, is providing the mission computer hardware and integrating it into the Valor’s avionics suite...
http://aviationweek.com/defense/bell-pl ... 19a0d70b57
An odd thought just popped into my head: would it possible to have the door guns lock into a forward firing position for the pilot to have the option to use when the aircraft is going too fast to have its doors open? If so, would that ever be useful?
Einstein got it backward: one cannot prevent a war without preparing for it.
Uncertainty: Learn it, love it, live it.
Uncertainty: Learn it, love it, live it.
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- Joined: 21 Aug 2010, 22:52
count_to_10 wrote:An odd thought just popped into my head: would it possible to have the door guns lock into a forward firing position for the pilot to have the option to use when the aircraft is going too fast to have its doors open? If so, would that ever be useful?
It would be complicated, especially regarding feed issues and aiming, and not of that much value in a transport aircraft. Don't want to playing fighter with a load of troops! also the question of when and how quick to move the guns from one role to another. The attack version has the gun under the nose.
long article best read there, but let me tease the stealth version.
Bell Pushes V-280 Gunship, Shipboard Variants: Recon In Works
ARLINGTON: How new is Bell Helicopter’s shiny showroom — excuse me, Advanced Vertical Lift Center — minutes from the Pentagon and the Capitol? Between the time I arrived this morning and the time I headed out, they installed two huge mockups of their high-speed V-280 Valor tilrotor. But these aren’t land-based troop transports like the prototype Bell’s already flying for the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) demonstration program. They’re heavily armed gunships...
https://breakingdefense.com/2018/08/bel ... i=64969375
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