Bell V-280 Chosen to Replace the H-60

[J_P_C]

Is it the engines, or just the driveshaft and prop/rotor?

special design of proprotor's gearboxes - fact that engines are fixed vs airframe it is important improvement in my opinion

 

[MIflyer]

s far this is not fact just wishful thinking of couple companies...

Well, it is more than just a couple of companies. It is intrinsic to the EVTOL approach since the things have too little performance to haul a pilot, too, even if he worked for free.

And we already have self-driving cars, to an extent. That is more difficult than flying because there is so much more stuff to hit.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Here are a couple of images to consider:

Defiant - need to completely remove the entire rotor & hub set-up to fit in a C-5.

View attachment 699286

Note that even the fuselage is taller than a UH-60.


Valor is available with folding-wing option:

View attachment 699287


View attachment 699288

Isn't that a nice, neat C-5 compatible package?
And even if the US Army version doesn't have the folding (rotating) wing... look at the ferry ranges below.


Here are some specs from the flight tests (of which Valor has conducted more than 3 times as many as Defiant, due to issues getting the Defiant flight-capable)... note that the US Army has said that they are focusing on Pacific-theatre requirements:

Defiant:
max speed: 211 knots (lower than the smaller SB-1, and less than Sikorsky had expected); "expected to be above 250 knots in production form"
combat radius: 229 nm (when the Future Affordable Turbine Engine is installed, rather than the T55s used for the test flights)
ferry range: ~700nm

Valor:
max speed: 300 knots proven in tests
combat radius: 800nm
ferry radius: 2,200 nm


Perhaps the speed & range differences, and the deployability difference (Valor doesn't really need to be shipped in C-5s with that kind of ferry range) plus the lower-than-expected performance of the scaled-up Defiant-X over that of the smaller SB-1 demonstrator led the Army to feel that Valor was significantly better for their purposes than Defiant?

Interesting. I was not aware of the folding/rotating wings. The Valor is going to be a maintenance pig and nightmare (not that Defiant won't be… )

 

[SaparotRob]

Short of the crop-duster derived COIN aircraft, aren't all cutting edge modern military aircraft maintenance pigs?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

You're not wrong.

 

[MIflyer]

Interesting. I was not aware of the folding/rotating wings.

Yes, I kind of assumed that, since the V-22 does that as well. But the V-280 is just a proof of concept prototype and may not have those features incorporated, which would explain why we have not seen that capability.

The big question is, since they found out the hard way that the V-22 does NOT fly anything like a helicopter even though they were using it for helicopter missions flown by helicopter pilots, will the Army have to find out the hard way about the V-280? Military organizations and some civilian ones (e.g., NASA) have a tendency to look at the lessons learned by other outfits with disdain and say, "That's those idiots! We are not that stupid!"

 

[J_P_C]

Short of the crop-duster derived COIN aircraft, aren't all cutting edge modern military aircraft maintenance pigs?

depends how you define word modern.... but yes maintenance cost is nightmare

 

[J_P_C]

Well, it is more than just a couple of companies. It is intrinsic to the EVTOL approach since the things have too little performance to haul a pilot, too, even if he worked for free.

And we already have self-driving cars, to an extent. That is more difficult than flying because there is so much more stuff to hit.

according to Richard Abbott in peak it was 320 so known "start ups" - i think right now we have could be 4-5 of them with slick view for success and small R&D projects in primes - i would say physics slowly cooling this "industry" down to the freezing point...

 

[BrownAW]

Is it the engines, or just the driveshaft and prop/rotor?

The engines don't tilt, a true tilt-rotor like it's ancestor the XV-3. First flight in August'55, first full tilt in December'58, powered by R-985 P&W

 

[eljefe]

Valor:
max speed: 300 knots proven in tests
combat radius: 800nm
ferry range: 2,200 nm

Just a littttle too short to make it from San Diego to Honolulu.

 

[GreenKnight121]

Just a littttle too short to make it from San Diego to Honolulu.

I'm sure it will be capable of having an aerial refueling probe added... as the MV-22 has.