WICHITA – Bell Textron has appointed a new general manager in Wichita to oversee the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program, as the U.S. Army accelerates its plans to replace its ageing Black Hawk fleet. Adam Blackford, now leading Bell Wichita, confirmed that fuselage work for the program will begin sooner than expected.
The Wichita facility, a 120,000-square-foot site on Textron Aviation’s east campus, completed renovations earlier this year. It will produce the fuselage for the MV-75 helicopter — formerly known as the V-280 Valor — which was selected by the Army to replace its Sikorsky Black Hawks. The FLRAA program, valued at approximately $70 billion over the coming decades, is now moving into an accelerated development phase.
Bell Wichita plans to complete its first full fuselage for the MV-75 by the end of the year. To meet the Army’s revised timeline, with initial deployment targeted for 2028 instead of 2030, the site will expand its workforce from an expected 40 to 50 employees by year-end, with further growth likely as production ramps up. A second shift is planned once full-scale manufacturing begins.
After assembly in Wichita, fuselages will be shipped to Bell’s Amarillo, Texas, facility for final integration. Transmissions and rotor blades will be produced at Bell’s new $632 million Fort Worth plant. The decision to keep FLRAA work in Wichita is considered a boost for the city’s aerospace industry, particularly as stakeholders seek to diversify beyond commercial aviation amid Boeing’s planned $8.3 billion acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems.
Blackford highlighted FLRAA as a model for broadening Wichita’s aerospace capabilities. “Work will be ramping up aggressively over the next three or four months,” he said, underlining Bell Textron’s commitment to meeting the Army’s accelerated requirements and strengthening the city’s defence portfolio.
SOURCE AND IMAGES: VIA BELL TEXTRON – By Jenna Farhat – Reporter, Wichita Business Journal
