Rotorcraft manufacturer Bell has dropped key supplier Spirit AeroSystems from its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) programme, which aims to deliver a next-generation tiltrotor to the US Army.
Textron subsidiary Bell confirmed the news on 14 October, saying it will now handle fuselage production in-house.
“Bell now has full responsibility for the fuselage scope of work, as we do with many of our products,” the company says. “Bell is determining what sites will assume that work.”
Wichita-based Spirit had designed and built the fuselage for Bell’s V-280 competitive prototype, which triumphed in the US Army’s FLRAA competition. Spirit describes that fuselage as being composed of an aluminium sub-substructure and composite skin.
Bell is now working toward the start of low-rate initial production on FLRAA, with six test aircraft under contract.
Spirit confirmed the move to FlightGlobal on 14 October.
”Spirit and Bell coordinated on an agreement to transition full responsibility for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft fuselage to Bell,” says Joe Bucciono, senior director of media relations at Spirit AeroSystems.
Bell does not specify why it dropped Spirit from the programme. But the decision comes as Boeing is working to re-acquire Spirit, which had been part of Boeing until being spun off in 2005. Spirit produces various aerostructures for Boeing jets, including 737 fuselages.
Boeing, which also has a significant defence business, began expressing interest in retaking Spirit in March, after the infamous Alaska Airlines door-plug incident was traced back to factory errors within Spirit. Under an $8.3 billion agreement announced in July, Boeing intends to acquire the critical supplier, minus sections of the company that supply rival airframer Airbus.
The Spirit acquisition is set to close in mid-2025.
Bell’s decision to drop Spirit comes as the company is just entering the early engineering and manufacturing design (EMD) stage of the FLRAA programme, during which decisions about suppliers and production locations are finalised.
Bell currently expects to deliver the first FLRAA tiltrotor in 2026, with low-rate production starting in 2028. The US Army plans to field the new aircraft to its first conventional units in 2030, and with special operations aviators around 2034.
While fuselage-production details remain murky, Bell now confirms its Amarillo site will host final assembly when the FLRAA programme enters regular production.
Already known as “Tiltrotor Town”, that facility houses Bell’s V-22 Osprey assembly line, production of the final AH-1Z attack helicopters and modernisation work on the US Marine Corps’ fleet of UH-1 utility rotorcraft.
