Bell V-280 Valor

Helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft
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by SpudmanWP » 22 Oct 2017, 22:29

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"The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese."


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by popcorn » 23 Oct 2017, 00:34

What are those?
"When a fifth-generation fighter meets a fourth-generation fighter—the [latter] dies,”
CSAF Gen. Mark Welsh


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by rheonomic » 23 Oct 2017, 03:01

popcorn wrote:What are those?


Looks like GBU-39 to me, but I'm not that great at vis ID of munitions.
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by SpudmanWP » 23 Oct 2017, 04:13

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.

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by zerion » 19 Dec 2017, 18:27

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


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by count_to_10 » 20 Dec 2017, 00:23

I see that they are still blurring the region around the gearbox.
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by KamenRiderBlade » 20 Dec 2017, 14:44

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.


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by zerion » 16 May 2018, 00:15

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/




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by zerion » 19 Jun 2018, 17:46

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/


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by zerion » 20 Jun 2018, 15:34

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


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by count_to_10 » 21 Jun 2018, 13:06

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?
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by aaam » 07 Jul 2018, 01:52

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.


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by zerion » 04 Aug 2018, 22:35

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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by zerion » 11 Oct 2018, 14:53



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by aaam » 16 Oct 2018, 07:46

V-280 has now flown @ 250 knots and demonstrated 4,500 fpm climb.


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