The Bell V-247 Vigilant is a concept by

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

to develop a large

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a trans ...

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

Development

Bell created the V-247 to meet emerging

U.S. military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

needs for a runway-independent Group 4 or 5 UAV to provide persistent support to ground forces while requiring less space to store and transport; Group 4 UAVs weigh more than and fly below , while Group 5 UAVs weigh the same but fly above 18,000 ft, such as the

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the Unit ...

RQ-4 Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. Th ...

, and

MQ-4C Triton The Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton is an American high-altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) under development for the United States Navy as a surveillance aircraft. Together with its associated ground control station, it is an ...

. It is named V-247 by the company because it is planned that a two-aircraft team can provide 24/7

intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ISTAR stands for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. In its macroscopic sense, ISTAR is a practice that links several battlefield functions together to assist a combat force in employing its sensors and managing t ...

(ISR) over a given area. The design uses tiltrotors to take off vertically and transition to high-speed forward flight, enabling performance unachievable with just

rotorcraft A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The Internati ...

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...

. It leverages technologies which Bell previously utilized for the

V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a convention ...

and

V-280 Valor The Bell V-280 Valor is a tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell Helicopter, Bell and Lockheed Martin for the United States Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.Future Vertical Lift Future Vertical Lift (FVL) is a plan to develop a family of military helicopters for the United States Armed Forces. Five different sizes of aircraft are to be developed, sharing common hardware such as sensors, avionics, engines, and counterm ...

program, and the HV-911 Eagle Eye, another smaller unmanned tiltrotor dropped in 2008. The aircraft is capable of performing a variety of missions including

electronic warfare Electronic warfare (EW) is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EM spectrum) or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponen ...

, persistent fire support,

airborne early warning Airborne or Airborn may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis * ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film * ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...

(AEW), and resupply. Bell is particularly interested in the U.S. Marine Corps'

Marine Air Ground Task Force Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF, pronounced MAG-TAF) is a term used by the United States Marine Corps to describe the principal organization for all missions across the range of military operations. MAGTFs are a balanced air-ground, combined ar ...

– Unmanned Expeditionary Capabilities (MUX) concept to perform the tasks of

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ( ...

and Reaper aircraft while operating from

amphibious assault ship An amphibious assault ship is a type of amphibious warfare ship employed to land and support ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault. The design evolved from aircraft carriers converted for use as helicopter carriers (and, as ...

s to complement and escort the MV-22. The

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

is also interested in runway-independent unmanned aircraft, and the Vigilant could be incorporated into manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) arrangements where helicopter pilots have the ability to control nearby drones from the cockpit using a tactical common

data-link A data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a transmitter and a recei ...

. A 1/8-scale model was unveiled on 22 September 2016, and the system could be ready for production by 2023.Bell unveils V-247 Vigilant unmanned tiltrotor
- Flightglobal.com, 22 September 2016Bell Unveils Pilotless Tiltrotor Aircraft Model
- Defensenews.com, 22 September 2016Month After Us, Bell Unveils V-247 Vigilant Tiltrotor Drone
- Breakingdefense.com, 22 September 2016Bell Helicopter Unveils New Tilt-Rotor Drone Concept
- Nationaldefensemagazine.org, 22 September 2016 While Bell is funding the V-247 through its preliminary design phase, the company is searching for a customer, likely the USMC, to fund the follow-on design effort to incorporate specific requirements into the design.

Design

The V-247 Vigilant is designed to weigh empty and carry of fuel, weapons, and sensors for a maximum

gross weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity. Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...

of , roughly three times the maximum takeoff weight of the MQ-9. While the V-22 and V-280 use two engines located within the tiltrotor pylons, the V-247 will have a single engine housed in the fuselage generating 5,000-6,000 shp (3,670-4,410 kW), about as much as the V-22's engines. Wingspan is , just shorter than the Reaper's, with -diameter tilting rotors, smaller in diameter than the V-22's. Like the V-280, it has a V-shaped tail and one long wing piece mated to the top of the fuselage as well as retractable tricycle landing gear. To enable size compatibility with

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

guided missile destroyer A guided-missile destroyer (DDG) is a destroyer whose primary armament is guided missiles so they can provide anti-aircraft warfare screening for the fleet. The NATO standard designation for these vessels is DDG, while destroyers who have a prim ...

s, the wing and rotors swivel along the -long fuselage to have the same footprint as the

UH-1Y Venom The Bell UH-1Y VenomDoD 4120-15L, ''Model Desi ...

helicopter; two folded up V-247s can fit inside one

C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft that was developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) from the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two ...

transport aircraft. The aircraft aims to have a cruise speed of , a top speed of , and a

service ceiling With respect to aircraft performance, a ceiling is the maximum density altitude an aircraft can reach under a set of conditions, as determined by its flight envelope. Service ceiling Service ceiling is where the rate of climb drops below a pres ...

of , with a

combat radius Radius of action, combat radius, or combat range in military terms, refers to the maximum distance a ship, aircraft, or vehicle can travel away from its base along a given course with normal load and return without refueling, allowing for all safet ...

of and time-on-station of 11–15 hours while carrying a payload. Range is for 17 hours on internal fuel, and it has the capability for

aerial refueling Aerial refueling, also referred to as air refueling, in-flight refueling (IFR), air-to-air refueling (AAR), and tanking, is the process of transferring aviation fuel from one aircraft (the tanker) to another (the receiver) while both aircraft a ...

. The aircraft can support an internal mission payload of and can sling-load . The Vigilant is equipped with three internal payload bays, a centerline payload, and the capability to house up to two underwing pylons per side for various payloads including additional fuel, radar systems,

LiDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

modules,

sonobuoy A sonobuoy (a portmanteau of sonar and buoy) is a relatively small buoy – typically diameter and long – expendable sonar system that is dropped/ejected from aircraft or ships conducting anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic resea ...

s, the

Mark 50 torpedo The Mark 50 torpedo is a U.S. Navy advanced lightweight torpedo for use against fast, deep-diving submarines. The Mk 50 can be launched from all anti-submarine aircraft and from torpedo tubes aboard surface combatant ships. The Mk 50 was intended ...

AGM-114 Hellfire The AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-ground missile (AGM) first developed for anti-armor use, later developed for precision drone strikes against other target types, especially high-value targets. It was originally developed under the name '' Heli ...

, and

Joint Air-to-Ground Missile The AGM-179 Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) is an American military program to develop an air-to-surface missile to replace the current air-launched BGM-71 TOW, AGM-114 Hellfire, and AGM-65 Maverick missiles. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine C ...

(JAGM).Bell leverages V-22 experience for new V-247 Vigilant unmanned tilt-rotor
- Newatlas.com, 23 September 2016

References

External links

Bell Helicopter Introduces Bell V-247 “Vigilant” Tiltrotor Unmanned Aerial System in Ship-Borne Configuration

{{Bell Aircraft V-247 Vigilant Tiltrotor aircraft Unmanned military aircraft of the United States High-wing aircraft

Development

Design

See also

References

External links