Army’s long-range assault aircraft fuselages to be built in Kansas

Bell Textron will construct the U.S. Military’s Future Lengthy Vary Assault Plane, or FLRAA, fuselages in Wichita, Kansas, the corporate introduced this week.

The corporate received the Military’s bid to construct FLRAA in late 2022 following a contest wherein it and a Sikorsky-Boeing workforce flew expertise demonstrators for a number of years to judge plane capabilities and drive out threat to a future program of document.

Bell will use an present facility close to Textron Aviation Protection and plans to start out work there “within the subsequent a number of months,” in accordance with an announcement.

The corporate can even conduct supporting work at a number of of its superior manufacturing services in Texas, like its Superior Composite Middle in Fort Value. Closing meeting will happen in Amarillo.

The Military’s FLRAA program moved out of expertise improvement and into the important engineering and manufacturing improvement section in August.

The FLRAA program is estimated to be price roughly $70 billion throughout its lifespan, together with international army gross sales, and is about to exchange roughly 2,000 Black Hawk utility helicopters.

The longer term superior tiltrotor is not going to function a one-for-one substitute for present plane, however it’s anticipated round 2030 to take over the roles of the Black Hawk, lengthy the Military’s workhorse.

The FLRAA program’s preliminary unit has already been delayed by one yr on account of protests by Sikorsky’s guardian firm, Lockheed Martin, over the service’s selection of Textron Bell’s superior tiltrotor design. Sikorsky and Boeing’s design featured coaxial rotor blades.

The Authorities Accountability Workplace rejected Lockheed’s protest in April 2023.

The Military will now equip the primary unit with the potential in fiscal 2031. A restricted consumer check is predicted someday in FY27 to FY28.

The contract award in 2022 consists of 9 choices — getting into the engineering and manufacturing improvement section means the Military will train the primary choice, beneath which Bell will ship detailed plane design and construct six prototypes.

The primary plane on this section is predicted to fly in 2026, with low-rate preliminary manufacturing slated to start in 2028.

“As Bell prepares for the following stage of FLRAA’s engineering and manufacturing improvement section, we’re dedicated to investing in superior manufacturing to make sure we ship distinctive efficiency at an inexpensive price to our buyer, Lisa Atherton, Bell’s president and CEO, stated within the assertion.

“Textron has a wealthy historical past with the state of Kansas in addition to town of Wichita,” she stated, “and we’re proud to deepen that relationship as we set up this new facility.”