Bell tunes new V-280 software to enhance aircraft handling qualities

Bell is tuning a new set of software for its V-280 Valor tiltrotor that gives the aircraft improved handling qualities, according to a company official. Ryan Ehinger, V-280 vice-president and programme director, told Janes on 15 December that this software added additional capabilities that would reduce pilot workload. This includes position hold and attitude hold, he said.

Bell is tuning a new set of software for its V-280 that will improve the aircraft’s handling qualities. This software adds additional capabilities, such as position hold and attitude hold, that will reduce pilot workload, according to a company official. (Bell)

Ehinger said that software development often held up development programmes. Bell, he said, has developed and tested the V-280 software in a way that enables the company to make speedy turns of software safely. Ehinger told Janes on 17 December that Bell, through multiple fly-by-wire aircraft programmes, had developed processes, automated tools, and system integration laboratory (SIL) capabilities that supported rapid development and robust testing of flight control system software.

These capabilities, Ehinger said, help to demonstrate enhanced levels of safety in proving out these flight critical systems ahead of flight test, as well as achieve substantial reductions in development cost and schedule. Bell’s V-280 SIL incorporates cockpit, flight control, hydraulic, avionics, and electrical systems that are highly representative of the actual aircraft to robustly and accurately evaluate the V-280 in normal and failure mode conditions.