V-280 Valor makes maiden flight
Bell Helicopter’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor prototype has successfully completed its first flight at the company’s Amarillo assembly facility in Texas.
In a short video released by the manufacturer on 18 December, the aircraft could be seen demonstrating its vertical lift capabilities to take off. It continued to fly at low altitude and hovered in ground effect thereafter.
‘The Valor is designed to revolutionize vertical lift for the US Army and represents a transformational aircraft for all the challenging missions our armed forces are asked to undertake,’ Mitch Synder, President and CEO at Bell said in a company statement.
The V-280 is being
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