Future conflicts will favor faster, nimbler military forces—think precision strikes and special ops. “The military needs assets that allow them to project their combat power more rapidly,” says Keith Flail, a program director at Bell Helicopter. It needs an aircraft that can hover for tactical maneuvers but also conquer the “tyranny of distance.”
The V-280 Valor could do just that. Its tilt-rotor design allows the craft to take off and land vertically, like a helicopter, or pitch its rotors forward to fly horizontally, like a turboprop plane. It stands to be safer and more agile than its clunky cousin, the V-22 Osprey. And at twice the speed and combat range of the Army’s current workhorse, the Black Hawk helicopter, the V-280 could vastly extend the reach of U.S. ground forces.
"Our nation and our service members should never have to fight a fair fight."
—Keith Flail, director of the Future Vertical Lift program at Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter's design is vying for the top spot in the Army’s Future Vertical Liftprogram, which aims to develop a family of next-generation rotorcraft. If chosen, the V-280, or something like it, could be navigating the skies by 2030.
source:www.popsci.com/most-versatile-aircraft-sky