FORT WORTH, TX -- While Bell waits for a decision on the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft and works toward flying its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft next year, the company has sought to impress Army officials with its improved manufacturing abilities that company executives say would enable it to produce both aircraft concurrently.
Bell says it is simplifying its manufacturing process by using high-tech machines, reducing the number of steps it takes to produce parts and controlling as much of the process as possible.
In both the FLRAA and FARA competitions, Bell is competing against coaxial helicopters being developed by Sikorsky-Boeing teams, and in both competitions Bell executives said they are highly confident their proposals would be more affordable, a difference, they say, is driven by simpler aircraft design and an emphasis on manufacturing improvements.
“We are in the process of designing details of the factory at the same time we are gearboxes,” said Glenn Isbell, vice president of rapid prototyping and manufacturing for Bell. “So, we can do those at the same time and iterate between those.”
The message from Bell to Army decision-makers is clear: The company believes it has the manufacturing muscle to break the decades-long chokehold Sikorsky and Boeing have held on Army aviation by producing the Black Hawk, Apache and Chinook helicopters.
The effort to impress Army officials has included tours of Bell’s Manufacturing Technology Center in Fort Worth, TX, which officially opened last year, showing off a range of technologies that Bell says will expedite its timeline to make the V-280, its FLRAA entrant, and the 360, its FARA entrant.
The facility, which officials said won’t be fully outfitted for a couple of years, allows Bell representatives to show the Army what it can do, rather than just telling them about it.
“We have a message, but then we’re saying, ‘Hey, we can actually show you what that really means in these facilities,’” Chris Gehler, vice president and program director for Bell’s FARA program, told reporters at the MTC. Bell offered travel accommodation for several reporters to make the trip.
Bell has invested $50 million into the facility, with plans for another $50 million to come, said Keith Flail, Bell’s executive vice president for advanced vertical lift systems. The MTC is home to a 40-foot by 10-foot 3D printer to produce tooling for part manufacturing, a metrology lab for testing completed parts, and machines that Bell says will significantly slash the amount of time it takes to make masts and gears.
Those innovations and others are linked by a digital intelligence system that processes data from the machines in the MTC to monitor quality and anticipate and then troubleshoot issues like machine wear. Augmented reality headsets incorporated into the system provide workers with visual instructions for fixing machines.
All the capabilities are centered on cutting costs and reducing the amount of time it takes to produce the V-280 and the 360 and allow Bell to produce both aircraft in the same factory. By reducing the amount of time it takes to produce gears, masts and other components, it also improves the company’s ability to respond, should it need to replace parts, executives said.
Isbell, the prototyping executive, said Bell has made "audacious” claims about manufacturing speed that have caught observers’ attention.
“The industry is built on small, incremental change, that’s what it expects,” Isbell said. “Or at least the same as the last guy did it, so just be as good as we did it 30 years ago. And our kind of mindset was, ‘That’s not good enough.’”
Variations of some of the technology at the MTC are in use in some of Bell’s current facilities, executives said, and Gehler said the Amarillo facility it currently uses to produce V-22s and H-1 variants can be capable of producing at least 48 360s a year.
This week, the capability demonstrator of the 360 sat framed by metal platforms, across from H-1 variants the company will send to the Czech Republic and Bahrain. Bell says it could produce the 360 without relying on complex production assemblies and heavy cranes that have traditionally slowed down similar processes.
Executives said they couldn’t say for sure if the Amarillo facility would be used to make the 360 if Bell wins the contract, but they said it was likely to be the home for assembly and final checks.
Bell plans to paint the Invictus in May before receiving the engine to power the aircraft through the Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program near the end of the year, with a first flight planned for 2023.
Depending on the Army’s order for the aircraft, executives said they could expand the Amarillo facility.
Flail said the Amarillo facility, the MTC and other Bell labs are all part of proving that Bell can produce the next generation of Army vertical lift. “Those are all the things that show you, ‘Can Bell really do all this?’ The answer is yes, and this is the ‘Why.’”