Good afternoon, folks. I'm a semi-new member. It seems that there is a bit of anti-SB-1 sentiment, and i'll rant my ideas on it. ALot of us want to see Bell Helicop-- er, Bell Flight, prevail in the FVL FLRAA or whatever it's called now. They're kind of an underdog i.e. they've had their machines in various entries over the years, and lost out to the AH-64 and UH-60 i.e. bid programs for Turkey, Taiwan, South Korea, Greece, etc, other countries, and the dominance of the AW139 in civil and militaries, the seeing the dead end of the ARH-70 bid, the Bell 210/412 not being picked over the Lakota UH-72... It would be great to see Bell prevail, especially as the Navy went with the AW-119 for the TH-57 replacement despite the idea of replacing a Bell 206 with a 407 seemed like a sure bet. Seems like Leonardo is winning everything these days!! I also secretly kick my table leg when I see on heli Hub that some other county Air ambulance replaces their Bell 412 with a $&@ Airbus H135/145 or Leo-Agusta Westland-Boeing whatever AW139. If only the Bell 525 had been ready in time for the UH-1N replacement... grrr.
It's good to see the AH-1Z get some foreign interest, like the Czech Republic's order and Bahrain' s pending sale, with Morocco and Romania showing interest. bell was able to make a sale to pakistan - but the AH-1Zs are currently in storage due to political order.
I believe the winged and plane-propped V-280 will have the range and speed advantage, and will be agile enough at the X. I simply don't see the SB>1 being as fuel efficient with the twin rotors and pusher prop, but may be nearly as fast as Valor due to raw power, but if Raider S-97 and Raider X are examples, it will be very agile at the X. We have to be aware that Sikorsky has a strong contender in the SB-1. However, I am sure Bell has their cards lined up for the FVL, with the V-280 building on the V-22 to make a strong case for tilt-rotors, and their B360 Invictus has the least complex approach to FARA, which may be a good thing. Go Bell Flight!