Originally Posted by
The Sultan
CTR
Bell’s FBW expertise came out of the V-22 and 609 which fed into the 525. Nick Lappos had nothing to do with these programs.
Sultan, never believe what you have heard second or third hand. Or even what Bell’s
PR promotes. These are the facts from someone involved firsthand on the V-22, 609, 525, and V-280 programs.
Bell was not lead on the V-22 flight controls, they were relegated to a supporting position. Boeing was primarily responsible for the V-22 flight control systems. The only flight controls area where Bell was close to being the lead was HQ and control laws.
Originally, the 609 flight control system was Boeing’s responsibility, the same split as on the V-22. There is very little in common between the flight control systems used in the V-22 and the 609. This was a necessary because the V-22 system was not only way too costly, it was also not FAA certifiable. The 609 flight controls required a clean sheet approach.
When Boeing backed out of the 609 and dumped responsibility for the flight control systems on Bell engineers, they rapidly realized they had been “sold down the river”. One Boeing supplier even told Bell that in response to Boeing’s request for proposal that a critical spec performance requirement “Defied the laws of known physics”. Boeing's response was, “we’ll work that out in negotiations”. This was a primary reason for the long delay in first flight of the 609. But it also allowed Bell engineers time to almost completely redesign every Boeing part and line of code.
Before Nick Lappos came to Bell, engineering was being lead by an ex-Boeing Vertol manager. This new VP of engineering told the Bell flight controls group that Bell would not do a commercial FBW product as long as he was in charge. Under his direction (what soon will be world's first civil certified fly by wire helicopter) would have been a warmed over Bell 412. Originally the 525 started off using the auto pilot and stability augmentation from a Bell 429. It was at this point in time, Bell started to hemorrhage flight control engineering talent to Sikorsky and other aerospace companies.
It is only when Nick Lappos arrived at Bell did the future course of the company change for the better. Nick went directly to the head of Textron and pushed for the 525 to be FBW. Nick also encouraged the flight control engineers to think out of the box and come up with novel solutions. Finally, despite Nick’s desire to develop an all new flight control system, Nick listened to his engineers when they told him they could adapt the (now Bell Design) 609 flight control system to do the job. And do it better than any supplier proposed new system. They also could do it cheaper and to a shorter schedule than anyone else. This is why Bell still has a fly by wire fly control systems group.
When Bell was originally teamed with Boeing on the V-280, Boeing presumed that the split would be the same as the V-22, and they would get the flight control systems lead. By this date, Nick had already left Bell. But in his short time with Bell he had completely turned around the flight control system group capability, he had also reenergized the belief Bell could do it alone. From what I’ve been told, some of the flight controls engineers at Bell cheered and danced when they were informed they would get the opportunity to design the V-280 flight controls without Boeing.
Now you know the whole story, firsthand.