BELL HELICOPTER Textron has surprised rivals by offering the Eagle Eye tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle for the US Department of Defense's multi-billion dollar Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) competition (Flight International, 27 March -2 April).
The US helicopter maker joins at least six other bidders for a two-year advanced concept-technology demonstration contract. The Pentagon plans to select the winner before the end of April.
Full production calls for 73 systems for the US Army, Marine Corps and Navy.
Although 15h of flight testing in 30 flights were completed successfully on the vertical-take-off Eagle Eye, as part of the Pentagon's Tilt-Rotor UAV System project, a customer could not be found for the Eagle Eye and the UAV's development was put on hold.
Bell's vertical-take-off competition is provided by Lear Astronics offering a substantially improved Bombardier Canadair CL-227 Sentinel, dubbed the Puma. Bombardier says that the Puma will meet or exceed the TUAV requirement, with a time on station of 3-4h at 200km (110nm) radius.
The Puma was successfully demonstrated to US Government officials at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in early March. The advanced drone had three flights, despite high winds, and its ability to land and take-off in a confined area was demonstrated in the exercise.
Source: Flight International
