Bell Helicopter’s XworX special projects and rapid prototyping center exists to give customers added value, according to Nick Lappos, senior vice president for XworX. Lappos says XworX can “be more agile and use non-traditional methods” for things such as blueprint release and purchasing to get the job done faster. The facility does not run new programs such as the new twin-engine 429 or BA 609 tiltrotor. Rather, it works with the managers of those programs, as well as the managers of legacy programs, to craft solutions as requested.
“A program manager might come to us and say, ‘I need more capability [on this part of the helicopter].’ And two weeks later we come back with a bunch of possibilities. ‘You know if you swap engines or put this rotor blade on, or how about if we modified the fuel system?’ And then we launch a team with maybe 30 people on it and six months down the road we end up with a flying article that is close to what we could build for a customer.”
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