World's First Tilt-Rotor Under Restoration

Flight Journal, Dec 2004 by Miller, Jay

BELL HELICOPTER TEXTROISI'S PRECEDENT-SETTING XV-3, the world's first successful tilt-rotor aircraft, was moved in midJanuary from its longtime venue at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum in Fort Rucker, Alabama, to Bell's Plant 6 flight-test facility at the municipal airport in Arlington, Texas. Bell plans to restore the history-making flying machine extensively before delivering it, in 2008, to its final resting place at the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio.

On February 10, 1955, the first of two XV-3s (54-147) was rolled out from Bell's Hurst, Texas, facility. It was first flown (in hover) six months later, on August 11, with Bell's chief test pilot Floyd Carlson at the controls. During the following 11 years, the aircraft participated in an extensive flight-test program, the last of which were conducted inside NASA's Ames, California, low-speed wind tunnel during May 1966.

The all-but-forgotten second XV-3 (54-148) was lost as a result of a pylon-instability incident on October 25, 1956. Bell test pilot Dick Stansbury was severely injured in the resulting crash when the bungee-actuated ejection seat, designed for ventral release, dislodged prematurely when the aircraft crashed into the ground. This XV-3 was scrapped after it proved too damaged to repair. Prior to the crash, the second XV-3 logged 270 flights, 125 hours of flight time and 110 full conversions, and it laid claim to the indoctrination of three Army, two Air Force, two NASA, and four Bell pilots. The first conversion from hovering takeoff to horizontal flight and back-the first ever for a tilt-rotor-took place on December 18, 1958, with Bell's Bill Quinlan at the controls.

The surviving XV-3 was stored outside at Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona during late 1966. It was then moved to the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, Alabama, partially restored and displayed outdoors, where, until 2003, it slowly deteriorated as a result of exposure and a lack of maintenance.

The current restoration will be shepherded by Charles Davis-one of the original project engineers on the XV-3 program who has long been retired from Bell. -Jay Miller