Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter is a leading worldwide supplier of rotary wing aircraft. Bell produces a complete line of light and medium commercial helicopters; scout, attack and utility military helicopters; and the revolutionary Bell-Boeing V-22 tiltrotor. Bell, a subsidiary of Textron, has manufacturing facilities in Fort Worth and Amarillo, Texas and in Mirabel Canada. Bell sells, services and through co-production arrangements, produces rotorcraft worldwide.
Bell is a technical leader in the rotorcraft industry as evidenced by having won two Collier awards. Noteworthy technologies include: transmission and drive system design and manufacture; automated manufacture of composite structures; bearingless rotors; active and passive vibration suppression; fatigue and fracture mechanics analysis and test; rotorcraft dynamics; military-specific capabilities; tiltrotor technology; full-mission simulation; and, fly-by-wire control systems.
New products on the horizon include Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), derivatives of the "Eagle Eye" a semi-autonomous, unmanned tiltrotor research vehicle. Another emerging product is the "Quad Tiltrotor" or QTR, a C130 sized tiltrotor, incorporates tandem wings and V-22 drive system technology. The QTR is being researched under several programs.
Bell Helicopter has design, analysis, manufacturing, assembly, and test facilities for its product line of rotorcraft. The design tools are primarily CATIA and Unigraphics. The production, analytical capability resides in five computing platforms and includes ANSYS, NASTRAN, CFD for aerodynamics, TRAC for acoustics, COPTER for vehicle performance and dynamics, GTR and ARMCOP for manned simulation, and the MATLAB suite for control law design.
Manufacturing has numerous autoclaves ranging in size up to 50 feet long, automated tape layers up to 120 feet long, computer controlled ply cutters and innovative slit tape placement machines for complete composites fabrication capability. Bell designs, analyzes, and fabricates all gears and transmissions for its products.
Production test facilities include: a rotor track and balance whirl stand; a flight test facility with full instrumentation and data telemetry capability; a structural test laboratory capable f fatigue and static test of all rotorcraft components up to and including the V-22 fuselage and wing; and, a material test lab for chemical, structural, and failure testing.
In addition to a systems test laboratory that provides the capability to perform integrated testing of fly-by-wire controls, and checkout of flight computers and displays, and actuators under load, research facilities include industry-leading infrared measurement of vehicle signatures, model hover tests, and wind tunnel test stands for powered model rotor test. Fabrication of composites such as model rotor blades, special military treatments, prototype components, test components, and unmanned air vehicle flying prototypes can be done in a secure facility.
