Earlier this week, the Boeing/Sikorsky team put out a statement detailing their acceptance by US Army on the Joint Multi-Role (JMR) project, the precursor to the Future Vertical Lift (FVL) programme.  In the absence of any press statement from Bell, they have provided the following quotes from  Keith Flail, program director for the Bell V-280 Valor, on their part in JMR.

“Bell Helicopter is pleased the company’s Bell V-280 Valor has been selected to continue in the U.S. Army’s JMR-TD program to build and fly a demonstrator aircraft. The aircraft can provide the military with unmatched range, speed and payload capabilities, and is designed with operational agility in mind to provide our soldiers transformational reach and revolutionary capability on the battlefield.

The clean-sheet design of the Bell V-280 Valor creates the capability to fly twice the range at double the speed of any existing helicopter. Bell Helicopter leads the industry with combat-proven tiltrotor technology, and has invested in the future of military rotorcraft with its third generation tiltrotor.

We remain focused on providing exceptional capabilities and flexibility in an advanced aircraft with reduced weight, complexity, and cost.”

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com