Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

Contributor

Mark Huber

Bell is not just developing new aircraft, it is changing how they are made.&nbsp;

 


The company cut the ribbon on its Manufacturing Technology Center (MTC) in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday afternoon, ahead of a formal grand opening later this year. The MTC is located in a 140,000-sq-ft building 15 minutes away from Bell’s main campus and was established to lower lead time, cost, and variability from&nbsp;components for Bell’s future vertical lift (FVL) aircraft, including the V-280 Valor and 360 Invictus.

 


The MTC&nbsp;“is the way we are reinventing our manufacturing process at Bell for all of our next-generation products,” said Glenn Isbell, Bell v-p of rapid prototyping and manufacturing innovation. It offers a digitally connected space for collaboration between Bell teams in an environment that promotes smart risk-taking, he said. New systems will be tested and vetted for production suitability before being introduced to Bell’s future factories.

 


Bell will use the MTC&nbsp;to “showcase how we will deliver the most affordable, capable, and reliable aircraft for the warfighter,” said Bell CEO and president Mitch Snyder.

 


Since starting operations, the facility already has born fruit toward significantly cutting lead times and costs of critical V-280 components, said Isbell, noting that the lead time for the aircraft’s rotor masts was shrunk from 18 months to 90 days and costs were reduced by 40 percent. “In the vertical lift space, the manufacturing process hasn’t changed that much in the last 30 years,” he said. “We developed a significant amount of manufacturing technology when we developed the&nbsp;V-22 [tiltrotor] 30 to 40 years ago&nbsp;but the industry hasn’t had a different shift in how aircraft are made.

 


“Our core philosophy is to simplify the manufacturing process by eliminating as many steps as we can, improve what is left, and use digital control capability to monitor how the parts are being built,” Isbell said. Besides cutting lead times and costs, digital controls eliminate variability and the possibility of an entire bad batch of parts being manufactured, he added. “Variation has caused struggles for low-volume aircraft production for a long time. This is a dedicated space to do step-function advances in manufacturing. We will be able to build things in such a different way. Most of the projects we are taking on have some pretty aggressive targets.”

 


Isbell said the MTC will develop manufacturing processes for both Bell factories and those of its suppliers, but added that Bell plans to keep the manufacture of critical components in-house to assure quality control. “We still plan to build most of our own core components—gearboxes, blades, those kinds of things. We believe having a vertically integrated approach controls the quality. We are not planning to deviate from that."

 


The MTC will be home to design and manufacturing engineers, programmers,&nbsp;materials specialists, and others, recruited from both inside and outside of Bell. Equipment will include&nbsp;digitally connected heat treating, additive-manufactured tooling, advanced composites manufacturing, bonding, high-speed machining, and robotics with an emphasis on critical vehicle components such as gears, gearboxes, main rotor blades, yokes, wings, and assembly-intensive components. “Giving people a space like this and the funding we have been able to give them for the last three to four&nbsp;years—to develop and try different things—we’ve been able to develop this capability offline while we have been flying the V-280,” Isbell said.&nbsp;&nbsp;

 


Besides serving as a manufacturing laboratory, the MTC is also a demonstration center aimed at dissuading uninformed skeptics wary of industry claims of better, faster, cheaper. “Disbelief is sort of the natural tendency when we say we can cut lead times by 80 percent or cost by 40 percent,” said Isbell. “Part of the reason we developed this center is that we can show it and prove it. We want to be able to walk people through and show them how we are doing it.”

 


Isbell admits the task is ambitious. “This facility is the proving-ground where 80 to 100 of the best minds I know are able to go and create and let it fail, try it again and succeed, and then go to the next step and go forward. We’ve been able to have great success, but for every one of those, there are three to four&nbsp;things that I’m not talking about. We don’t bat a thousand&nbsp;and, if we do, it means we are picking the wrong things. It’s a fun project, but a challenging project.”

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

Bell Opens Manufacturing Technology Center

Bell's Manufacturing Technology Center is designed to change the way rotorcraft are made. 

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Neelam Mathews

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

Essential news and analysis on the defense aerospace business. Your trusted source for new and ongoing programs and requirements in military aircraft (manned and unmanned), engines, avionics, weapons and associated systems, including ground-based air defense.

News and issues concerning general aviation, specifically airplanes and helicopters powered by piston and alternative engines (i.e., non-turbine powered aircraft). Subjects include aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Nepal’s army and private operators have deployed rotorcraft across the flood zone

Helicopters Play Crucial Role in Himalayan Flood Rescues

Charlotte Bailey

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

Pentagon permission facilitates sale of Bell 412EXP and 407M

U.S. Approves $800M Bell 407/412 Sale to Iraq Military

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Fire and disaster management agency to use aircraft in aerial reconnaissance role

Japan Orders Its First H160 for Emergency Response

Flights with two scaled technology demonstrators will inform potential future iterations 

Singaporean eVTOL Conducts Test Campaign In Germany 

Matt Thurber

New developments and products in avionics, specifically about aircraft electronics in the cockpit.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

More In Rotorcraft

Helicopters Play Crucial Role in Himalayan Flood Rescues

Nepal’s army and private operators have deployed rotorcraft across the flood zone

U.S. Approves $800M Bell 407/412 Sale to Iraq Military

Pentagon permission facilitates sale of Bell 412EXP and 407M

Japan Orders Its First H160 for Emergency Response

Fire and disaster management agency to use aircraft in aerial reconnaissance role

Singaporean eVTOL Conducts Test Campaign In Germany

Flights with two scaled technology demonstrators will inform potential future iterations

FAA Approves TSO for ASU Panoramic Night-vision Goggles

Lightweight white-phosphor NVG have a 94-degree field of view

FAA Floats Special Conditions for Skyryse Fly-by-wire R66

Proposed rule addresses pilot awareness of control limits

Vertical Lift Groups Extend Trade Show Partnership

European Helicopter Association and Vertical Aviation International extended their alliance

Sikorsky Is Upgrading the Black Hawk Helicopter for Evolving Military Needs

Armed forces will be able to outfit Black Hawks with new armament and equipment.

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN