11 Facts About Bell XV-3

Bell XV-3 is an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies.

The Bell XV-3 featured an engine mounted in the fuselage with driveshafts transferring power to two-bladed rotor assemblies mounted on the wingtips.

The wingtip rotor assemblies were mounted to tilt 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal, designed to allow the Bell XV-3 to take off and land like a helicopter but fly at faster airspeeds, similar to a conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

The Bell XV-3 program ended when the remaining aircraft was severely damaged in a wind tunnel accident on 20 May 1966.

In October 1953, Bell XV-3 Helicopter was awarded a development contract to produce two aircraft for testing purposes.

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Bell XV-3 attempted to remedy the situation, and flight testing resumed on 29 March 1956 after additional ground runs.

Bell modified the second XV-3 by replacing the three-bladed rotors with two-bladed rotors, and after taking extensive precautions, the second XV-3 began testing at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics' Ames Aeronautical Laboratory wind tunnel facility on 18 July 1957.

The Bell XV-3 returned to the Ames wind tunnel in October 1958 to collect more data before it could be flown again.

Flight testing at the Bell XV-3 facilities was completed on 24 April 1959, and the aircraft was shipped to Edwards Air Force Base.

Testing would continue through July 1962 as NASA and Bell XV-3 completed wind tunnel testing to study pitch-flap coupling exhibited by the tiltrotor in an effort to predict and eliminate the aeroelastic dynamic rotor instability that had caused problems throughout the program.

The Bell XV-3 had accomplished a total of 250 flights, accumulated 125 flight hours, and completed 110 full conversions.