V-280 Tiltrotor Can Fly Unmanned, Bell Says

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 V-280 Tiltrotor Can Fly Unmanned, Bell Says
The Army is skeptical that early models of the Future Vertical Lift aircraft will be able to fly unmanned. But Bell says it’s already flight-tested all the essential automation.

By   Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on January 08, 2020 at 6:16 PM

 

ARLINGTON, TX: How soon before we see Army helicopters and tiltrotors flying without anybody in the cockpit? The service’s aviation modernization director publicly doubted today the automation would be ready for the first production models set to enter service by 2030. “It’ll be a very tall order to get it into Increment 1,” Brig. Gen. Wally Rugen said. “We’ll have it in another spiral [uppgade] for sure.”
 

But less than an hour later, the senior engineer for Bell’s V-280 Valor, Paul Wilson, told reporters that the tiltrotor had already flight-tested “full auto take-off, full auto landing, and all the points in between.”

https://breakingdefense.com/2020/01/v-280-tiltrotor-can-fly-unmanned-bell-says/