Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
Bell played hardball on teaming negotiations and drove Boeing to look for other options....
I heard a different background story. In early 2012, when Boeing and Bell were still teamed on the proposal for what was to evolve into FLRAA, Bell got uneasy, sensing that Boeing was up to something.
About seven years earlier, Bell was teamed with Boeing on the JHL (Joint Heavy Lift) proposal. Bell was obligated to team with Boeing on any tiltrotor configuration by contract. Half way through the proposal development, Boeing was running months late on delivery of their assigned sections. When the Boeing sections arrived, they were garbage. To salvage the proposal, Bell was forced to rewrite much of the Boeing content.
Just prior to the JHL proposal submission deadline, Bell discovered that Boeing had set up a second engineering team, to submit an all Boeing proposal for a huge Chinook configuration. Boeing engineering manpower had been diverted from the joint proposal with Bell, to ensure success of the Boeing only proposal.
On FLRAA in mid 2012, when Boeing started failing to meet schedule on their proposal commitments, Bell formed teams to write all of the Boeing content. When Boeing found this out, they protested at the CEO level, and finally began to submit their proposal content. But again, what Boeing submitted was garbage.
For the FLRAA demonstrator aircraft, Boeing insisted that only a modified full size V-22 could meet the Army schedule. This meant that the demonstrator aircraft would be approximately 125% the scale of the production aircraft. Additionally, Boeing stated that a fixed engine configuration was not possible due to system integration issues.
The final decision by Boeing to break from Bell came after Boeing was required to contractually make a financial commitment.
Based on Boeing’s duplicitous behavior on the JHL proposal, it was no surprise that soon after parting ways with Bell, the Sikorsky/Boeing teaming was announced. Teaming with Sikorsky, Boeing was only required to make a substantial financial commitment after the contract was awarded.
Regardless, most Bell engineers were very happy when Boeing left the program. And are even happier now.