Bell V-280 'Valor'

In the past few weeks, bell has successfully completed the first flight of their new V-280 Tilt rotor aircraft the ‘Valor. (Not to be confused with the equally impressive feat of engineering from Landrover, the Range Rover ‘Velar’ which also debuted recently!). The Valor is quite a machine to behold, with a fuselage comparable to the UH-60 Blackhawk in shape, the evident tilt-rotor, and a ‘V’ tail plane.

The V-280 was built for the military demographic, and is unlikely to be a glorified AW609 or ever be seen in civilian colours. It currently boasts a range and speed twice that of current production helicopters and this is the main tagline from Bell Helicopters in marketing the aircraft. Baseline specifications, suggest a range between 500 and 800 nautical miles and a KTAS of 280 Knots and a triple-redundant fly-by-wire control system.

The cabin is armoured as standard through manufacture, and can house a crew of 4, and 14 troops. Access and egress of which is through two 6 foot doors either side of the cabin, just aft of the aerofoil. The cabin tails off to a single point landing gear, in a reverse tri-cycle layout, with the front two components just aft of the cockpit fuselage. All three are fully retractable.

In comparison to the V22 Osprey, where the whole engine nacelle transitions to allow forward to vertical flight and vice-versa, only the forward portion of the V280 Valor transitions. This is important when conducting shipborne operations. As the hot exhaust gases from nacelles of the V22 when vertical and transitioning onto the deck of a warship could cause damage to the deck (and most definitely would melt all life-saving equipment on British warships with their stowages port of the deck catwalks!).

Adversely, the Valor has only half the payload of the Chinook, 12,000lbs to the CH-47F 24,000Lbs. It will be interesting and exciting to see these machines operating in the warfare space in the coming years and the role, if any the will play at land and sea.

#bell #aviation #v280 #valor #aviate #rotary