Bell begins MV-75 tiltrotor gearbox testing — AeroTime
In the United States, Bell has completed the manufacture of the first nacelle structures for the MV-75 Cheyenne tiltrotor, which is being developed for the U.S. Army, and has begun testing the aircraft’s gearboxes. As AeroTime reports, this work concerns the first prototype being created under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program.
Wing and nacelle assembly
The first nacelle structures were delivered to Bell’s assembly center in Amarillo, Texas. There, workers began joining them to the tiltrotor’s wings. The company said that the use of digital design covered the development, tooling creation, manufacturing, and assembly stages.
Bell completed the first two wing structures in June 2026, when the nacelles were still in production. After the wings and nacelles are joined, they are to be attached to the fuselage, which is being built at Bell’s facility in Wichita, Kansas.
Power system testing
Gearbox testing is taking place at the new MV-75 drive systems laboratory in Grand Prairie, Texas. These units provide operation of electric generators, hydraulic pumps, and cooling fans for the engines and nacelles. The gears and housings for them were manufactured at Bell’s manufacturing technology center in Fort Worth.
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Other suppliers are also involved in creating the powerplant. Collins Aerospace was selected in April 2026 to supply the main electrical power generation system and the cross-drive system, while Rolls-Royce began ground testing of the AE 1107F engines in December 2025.
Cockpit and control systems
At Bell’s weapons systems integration laboratory in Arlington, engineers are integrating flight-control computers, general-purpose computers, an actuator drive unit, electrical components, and large-format displays. The laboratory was opened in March 2024 to test software and onboard systems before their installation on the aircraft.
In May 2026, pilots from the U.S. Army’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade evaluated the MV-75 cockpit displays on simulators at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Their feedback on the displays’ impact on pilot workload is to be taken into account in the detailed design. The timing of flight tests for the first prototype tiltrotor has not yet been announced.
The U.S. Army selected Bell’s V-280 Valor design in December 2022 to replace a significant part of the UH-60 Black Hawk fleet and awarded an initial $1.3 billion development contract. The aircraft was initially named Cheyenne II, but the Army and Bell now use the name Cheyenne.
