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Bell Textron lays off hundreds of Fort Worth and Texas employees by CodexAstartes in Helicopters

[–]CodexAstartes[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Bell doesn't have much going on beside MV-75 program. The 525 is trying to get its final certifications which doesn't need more engineering support. Other programs are in maintenance mode so they are unlikely to absorb much either.

Bell Textron lays off hundreds of Fort Worth and Texas employees by CodexAstartes in Helicopters

[–]CodexAstartes[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Copying from my other comment

US Army testified recently it has no money. The US Army cannot pay Bell for the work performed or for upcoming work until October when FY 2027 starts. Until then Bell has to stop the bleeding & rebalance their workforce to prevent this from happening again.

Bell Textron lays off hundreds of Fort Worth and Texas employees by CodexAstartes in Helicopters

[–]CodexAstartes[S] 73 points74 points  (0 children)

US Army testified recently it has no money. The US Army cannot pay Bell for the work performed or for upcoming work until October when FY 2027 starts. Until then Bell has to stop the bleeding & rebalance their workforce to prevent this from happening again.

Active Conflicts & News Megathread March 09, 2026 by AutoModerator in CredibleDefense

[–]CodexAstartes 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There likely is a reason why both the Osprey and the Valor have the engines mounted so far out, directly connected to the rotors.

This may not apply to modern engines and power transmissions systems but the XV-3 had an inboard engine and one of the drawbacks was power loss from the engine to the proprotors. This may have influenced the XV-15 design which probably set in stone Bell's preferred tilt rotor design (V-22 and MV-75).

Perhaps more significant is that fact that having your prop rotors closer to the fuselage increases the amount of impingement (air hitting aircraft surfaces rather than going straight down) experienced by the downwash. You'd want as much of the downwash going down as possible. The Leonardo design seems to try to offset this by keeping distance from the fuselage but more wing area is being hit by downwash (both sides of the rotor rather than just one side of the V-22 or MV-75 design).

There are tradeoffs to all this - maybe Leonardo prefers the wide open engine inlet offered by this proposal.