US Military Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft Helicopter unveiled
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MOSCOW - Helicopter maker Bell unveiled its design for the US Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) competition on Tuesday: the optionally-manned 360 Invictus.
Bell, a subsidiary of Textron, was awarded a contract in April to design a prototype helicopter to fit the US Army’s FARA needs. However, Bell will have to clear several competing designs from the likes of AVX, Boeing, Sikorsky and Karem Aircraft before winning the big contract.
FARA is part of the Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) initiative, a program to put a new generation of helicopters into service by 2030. The other key part of the FVL is the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA), designed to primarily replace the aging UH-60 Black Hawk, built by Sikorsky, and AH-64 Apache, built by Boeing.
Last month, the Army asked the competitors to accommodate duties link performed by the MH-6 Little Bird, a scout chopper used for delivering special forces behind enemy lines that’s affectionately known as the “killer egg,” into their FVL design entries.
Bell unveiled the design at its headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday, showing an attack helicopter with a sleek, shark-like body lifted by a single rotor with four short, 40-foot blades
The Army’s demands of Bell’s design are steep: the aircraft is capable of reaching 180 knots, has a range of 135 nautical miles, with 90 minutes of time on-station and can lift up to 1,400 pounds, according to the program website link.
Further, the 360 Invictus has a supplemental power unit, to give it an extra boost at the critical moment, and a fly-by-wire control system, shedding the hydraulics still in use in the aging US chopper fleet.
“Proven on the Bell V-280 Valor and Bell 525 Relentless, Bell’s advanced digital flight control system harmonizes mature technologies for next-generation performance while offering an upgrade path to higher-level capabilities, such as optimally crewed flight operations,” Bell wrote on its website.
The chopper was required to have short blades so that the Army is “able to operate in urban canyons as well as out in mixed terrain," Jeffrey Schloesser, executive vice president for strategic pursuits at Bell, said at the unveiling, Military.com link reported.
