The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected Bell Textron to proceed with Phase 2 of its Speed and Runway Independent Technologies X-plane project, which involves a concept aircraft that has features of both high-speed fighter jets and helicopters. The selection authorizes Bell Textron to complete design, construction, ground testing, and certification of an X-plane demonstrator.
The SPRINT X-Plane would offer what the contractor’s SVP-Engineering Jason Hurst called “stop/fold technology”: it would take-off and land vertically (VTOL) and hover in “austere environments from unprepared surfaces”, but also travel at 400-450 knots (740 km/460 mph - 833 km/517 mph) with its rotors folded.
DARPA – the U.D. Dept. of Defense research and development body focused on advanced technologies for the military and national security – has a 2026 budget of $55.2 million for the SPRINT project.
A subsidiary of Textron Inc., Bell Textron is a specialty developer and manufacturer of helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft. It was one of two companies selected by DARPA and the U.S. Special Operations Command to compete in Phase 1 of the project, which involved conceptual and preliminary design for a SPRINT X-plane.
It said that its efforts through Phase 1A and 1B included demonstrating folding rotor, integrated propulsion, and flight control technologies at Holloman Air Force Base, as well as wind tunnel testing at the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University.
Now, Bell Textron is the sole contractor chosen to proceed with Phase 2. It is expected to deliver the demonstrator aircraft by 2027, and Phase 3 of the program involving flight testing is scheduled to begin in 2028.
“This is an achievement we’ve been working towards for over 10 years, as we’ve leveraged our nearly 90-year history of X-plane development to bring new technology to our warfighters,” according to Hurst.
