Rotorcraft
Bell Banking On FVL For Future Military Sales
Textron CEO credits Bell V-280 with persuading Pentagon to propose more Future Vertical Lift funding.

Textron's Bell unit is counting on aftermarket military aircraft support revenues and the success of its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) offerings to bridge the gap in military revenues when the Bell-Boeing V-22 tiltrotor program winds down in 2024, said CEO Scott Donnelly. The V-22 program comprises nearly half of Bell’s military revenues. Military customers accounted for nearly two-thirds of Bell’s 2018 total revenues of $3.18 billion. Bell currently has contracts for 63 more V-22s through 2024. V-22s have flyaway prices of between $76 million and $86.8 million each depending on configuration. Donnelly held out the possibility that the V-22 order book would grow with the addition of foreign military sales (FMS), which he also said was a possibility for the H-1 program that produces modernized versions of the Cobra gunship and twin-Huey.