Bell V-280 Flies 322 MPH: Army Secretary Praises Program
"Our new approach is really to prototype as much as we can to help us identify requirements, so our reach doesn’t exceed our grasp," Secretary Esper said. “A good example is Future Vertical Lift: The prototyping has been exceptional."
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on January 24, 2019 at 6:16 PM
WASHINGTON: Bell’s V-280 Valor prototype exceeded 280 knots this week, making good on the aircraft’s namesake speed, the company announced this afternoon.
And it’ll fly faster before it’s done, a Bell executive told me in an interview.
The news is the latest public triumph for Bell’s tiltrotor technology at a time when its rival for the Army-led Future Vertical Lift program, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1 Defiant, is still in ground testing after repeated delays. And, coincidentally or otherwise, Army Secretary Mark Esper went out of his way this afternoon to praise FVL as a model for Army modernization.
https://breakingdefense.com/2019/01/bell-v-280-flies-322-mph-army-secretary-praises-program/
