Jessica Reed is a writer and editor with AIN. She joined the team in the fall of 2023 after two years covering the aviation industry at Avionics International. She earned her bachelor&#039;s degree in English (Writing &amp; Rhetoric) from Pepperdine University. Her hometown is St. Louis, Missouri, and she since has resided in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooklyn, New York, among others. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

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Bell delivered 78 commercial helicopters in the fourth quarter, unchanged from a year earlier, as the rotorcraft manufacturer’s revenues climbed 11%, to $1.3 billion, driven by the accelerating MV-75 military program.
Fourth-quarter commercial deliveries included forty 505s, twenty-one 407s, sixteen 429s, and one 412. This compares with thirty-five 505s, twenty-three 407s, fifteen 429s, and five 412s in the same period in 2024.&nbsp;Military deliveries totaled just one V-22 Osprey in the quarter, down from two V-22s delivered in fourth-quarter 2024.
For the full year, Bell delivered 169 commercial helicopters, compared with 172 in 2024. The 2025 deliveries comprised eighty-four 505s, forty-eight 407s, twenty-nine 429s, and eight 412s. Military deliveries totaled eight V-22s in 2025, down from 14 V-22s—as well as four H-1s—delivered in 2024.
“Bell also had a very strong year with revenue up 11% for the fourth quarter and 20% for the full year,” Textron executive chairman Scott Donnelly said during Wednesday’s earnings call. “With the acceleration of the MV-75 program, 2025 marks Bell’s second consecutive year of 20% growth in military revenue.”
According to Textron, the revenue increase of $128 million from fourth-quarter 2024 reflected higher military revenues of $139 million, primarily due to higher volume on the U.S. Army’s MV-75 program, partially offset by an $11 million reduction in commercial revenues.
<h3>MV-75 Production Ramps Up</h3>
Donnelly provided extensive details on Bell’s progress ramping up production of the MV-75 tiltrotor, formerly known as the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft. “We’ve completed over 90% of the engineering drawings, put nearly 2,000 Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers on contract, issuing 45,000 purchase orders,” he said. “We’ve opened new manufacturing capacity in Wichita for the fuselage and Fort Worth for the Advanced Manufacturing Center, the drive systems test lab, and the weapons systems integration lab. And we’ve begun manufacturing components for the first six aircraft, so the acceleration is not just design work. It’s establishing real production capacity as we pull forward production by a couple of years.”
Earlier this month, Bell hosted the secretary of the Army and representatives from the MV-75 program office at its Wichita Assembly Center. “During this visit, we were able to demonstrate our production capabilities and progress on the first six aircraft that are currently in work,” Donnelly said.
For the full year, Bell generated revenues of $4.3 billion, up 20% over 2024. However, segment profit declined to $363 million, down $7 million from the prior year. Fourth-quarter segment profit of $101 million was down $9 million from the same period in 2024.
Bell’s backlog ended the year at $7.8 billion, reflecting an increase of more than $300 million from 2024 driven by growth in both military and commercial businesses, according to Textron.
<h3>New Leadership Outlines Vision</h3>
The earnings call marked Donnelly’s final appearance as he transitions from the CEO role he held since 2009 to executive chairman. Lisa Atherton, who previously served as CEO of Bell, assumed the top executive position at Textron.
Atherton, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who joined Textron in 2007, emphasized the Army’s urgency regarding the MV-75 program specifically. “I think the Army’s been crystal clear about their desire to move faster,” she said. “The mandate that came out from the secretary and the chief earlier in 2025 with the Army Transformation Initiative put this program as a centerpiece to what they want to execute for the warfighter in the really very near term.”
Atherton explained that program acceleration has pulled forward the entire timeline by approximately two and a half to three years. “What we’ll do is deliver these aircraft on the EMD through 2027, move right into—instead of having that gap which the original program had, where we were going to kind of go into this testing phase and no production, so we would have two years of nothing,” she said. “That now has been filled in, so within months after aircraft number eight is delivered, you’ll see aircraft number nine, followed by ten, et cetera.”
Bell expects to begin testing on the first MV-75 unit later this year, deliver engineering and manufacturing development articles throughout 2027, and then transition into low-rate initial production deliveries in 2028.
<h3>Financial Outlook&nbsp;</h3>
Textron is forecasting 2026 revenues of approximately $15.5 billion, up from $14.8 billion in 2025. For Bell specifically, the company expects revenues of approximately $4.4 billion, reflecting low single-digit growth, with segment margins in a range of 8% to 9%.
However, CFO David Rosenberg remarked, “As the MV-75 program continues to accelerate, we expect that we will be awarded the long-lead, low-rate initial production (or LRIP) phase of the contract in late 2026 or early 2027. Upon award of the LRIP option, which is largely fixed price, we expect to record an unfavorable cumulative catch-up program adjustment, reflecting higher costs than originally anticipated when the program was bid in 2021, in the range of $60 million to $110 million.”
Rosenberg emphasized that despite this potential adjustment, “the overall MV-75 program will continue to generate a positive margin after the adjustment.” He noted that the timing uncertainty of the LRIP award means this potential charge has not been reflected in the company’s 2026 guidance.
Textron’s 2026 cash flow outlook reflects approximately $350 million of higher capital expenditures and long-lead material to support LRIP on the MV-75 program. The company expects capital expenditures of approximately $650 million in 2026, up from $383 million in 2025.
“As we’ve talked about over the last six months as acceleration took hold, essentially we’re moving about two years to the left in terms of investment, so you’ll probably see the elevated level in 2026 and 2027,” Rosenberg said. “All driven, really, by the MV-75 program, simply moving investment that would have been in 2028 and 2029 to the left.”
<h3>Additional Military Opportunities</h3>
Beyond the MV-75 program, Atherton highlighted other military opportunities for Bell. “Earlier this month, Bell was notified of its selection to proceed to the next phase of the Flight School Next competition,” she said. “This would be a new program to train Army aviators at Fort Rucker. This opportunity leverages our 505 helicopter and our expertise in flight training, where Bell currently trains nearly 2,000 pilots per year at the Bell Training Academy.”
When asked about logistics and support for the MV-75, Atherton explained that Bell will work with the Army to establish organic capability. “I think the Army in this approach also has been very intentional on how they have gone with basically their purpose rights,” she said. “They want to have some organic capability themselves, so we will work with them to help them stand up that capability.”
Donnelly concluded his final earnings call by expressing confidence in the company’s direction. “I feel very good about where the business stands, the team that we have in place, and the leadership that Lisa brings to the table,” he said.

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