Bell V-247 Armed Tiltrotor UAV

[chopper2004]

EXCLUSIVE: Meet Bell?s V-247, Armed Tiltrotor Drone For Marines « Breaking Defense - Defense industry news, analysis and commentary

[charliegolf]

Bit small maybe?

CG

[MPN11]

Bit small? You want to be hit in the head with one of those?

[chopper2004]

Bell 249 unveiled at Quantico

Bell unveils the 247 Vigilant unmanned attack tilt rotor at the Modern Day Marine event at Quantico the other day. It was a couple of years ago when Bell announced the development of the Bell 247 Vigilant in effect a 24/7 shipborne asset for the Marine Corps. It has an endurance of 11 hours Time on Stations with 600 ib of Mission Payload at 450 nm Mission Radius. They are also envisaging it can also be operated from a destroyer or cruiser....not just one of their WASP class LHA/D etc etc
cheers

Bell V-247 Vigilant - Bell

[unmanned_droid]

Nice. I suppose it's mostly an ISR asset with 11 hours time on station but a 600lb payload, although, the smaller munitions like Griffin and Viper Strike could allow enough rounds to keep up offensive action over that time I guess.

[ORAC]

Interesting that it has wing pylons and rails. It can’t fire anything forward due to the rotor disks and, with their wash, the aerodynamics of even a gravity drop weapon will be...... interesting.

[Mogwi]

Actually they solved that problem in 1914; just glue metal wedges on the back of the blades!

[air pig]

Originally Posted by ORAC

Interesting that it has wing pylons and rails. It can’t fire anything forward due to the rotor disks and, with their wash, the aerodynamics of even a gravity drop weapon will be...... interesting.

Just go to helicopter mode.

[peterperfect]

Originally Posted by air pig

Just go to helicopter mode.

when its unmanned, why would you have to fire missiles forward ?

[unmanned_droid]

I prefer the idea of loading containers and dropping vertically. Although I accept that there is a loss of forward speed advantage afforded by the carrying aircraft.

[dead_pan]

Originally Posted by ORAC

Interesting that it has wing pylons and rails. It can’t fire anything forward due to the rotor disks and, with their wash, the aerodynamics of even a gravity drop weapon will be...... interesting.

My initial thought too.

Maybe its fitted with interruptor gears?

[bobward]

Thank heavens it's being built by Bell and not Cyberdyne systems......

[ORAC]

Just go to helicopter mode.

So, fly over the target area, descend to maximum hover altitude, and then slow to minimum speed and transition to vertical mode whilst designating the target.

I’m glad it’s unmanned.....