Pilots want to fly it, mechanics want to maintain it, but no one knows
for sure what the Future Vertical Lift aircraft will look like or what
its characteristics will be once it cracks its shell and hatches.
But there's one thing Soldiers are sure of: The Future Vertical Lift, or FVL, will be Army aviation's golden egg.
As of now, it's in the embryonic stage of development, and like happy
parents, Army aviators were excited to talk Tuesday, about their nascent
conceptual flying machine at the two-day 2014 Mission Solutions Summit
of the Army Aviation Association of America, known as Quad-A.
FVL's banal program name -- the Joint Multi-Role helicopter program --
belies the advanced capabilities it promises to deliver. The hoped-for
features will be enough speed, lift, lethality, range, survivability and
low sustainment costs to replace the already aging fleet of Black Hawk
and Apache helicopters. A heavy version could replace the Chinook.
While the Black Hawk, Chinook and Apache are continually getting
upgrades, it's the same old 1960s technology airframe underneath all
those bells and whistles. With FVL, it's a completely new airframe and
helicopter and the Army wants to do this right.
That delivery capability is so important to the Army that despite
operating in a fiscally constrained environment, Lt. Gen. James Barclay,
deputy chief of staff, G-8, emphatically declared to aviators at Quad A
that "we are committed to moving forward with the Joint Multi-Role FVL
type platform."
Army aviators are not the only ones excited to witness the hatching of
FVL. Industry partners are just as eager to experience it and be called
the parents.
There are now four vendors -- Bell Helicopter, Boeing-Sikorsky (combined
efforts), AVX Aircraft and Karem Aircraft -- providing capabilities and
details of their designs to the JMR-FVL, a process called "initial
design and risk review."
That process will conclude this summer and down-selection will begin.
The down-select means two vendors will be eliminated while two move
forward to build FVL demonstrators to be used through 2019, and at some
point a vendor or combination of vendors will get the contract.
"It's going to be critical over the next 12 to 14 months to make sure
the requirement is properly designed," Barclay said, referring to the
initial design and risk review. He added that U.S. Army Training and
Doctrine Command is also examining the requirements.
That effort and follow-on efforts with the demonstrators will take a lot
of resources and some risk as well, said Keith Flail, a program
director with Bell, although he added that the government will share 50
percent of the cost.
Flail had a small mockup and a full-size mockup set up in a huge exhibit
hall in the basement of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Soldiers and others
flocked to the FVLs, although most of the older pilots realized they'd
probably never fly one because of the lengthy design, test and
procurement process.
The other vendors were there in the big basement as well with their
mockups and industry reps, including Abe Karem, president of Karem
Aircraft.
He said the competition among vendors was friendly, preferring to call them "candidates."
Karem said he thinks FVL will be in Army aviation units, starting in 2030.
Barclay, however, was not as optimistic.
Adding several qualifiers to his remarks, Barclay said: "From my
perspective, I think it's going to be somewhere probably in the mid- or
late-30s as we move forward. I don't think that timeline is changed. We
kind of played with the 2030 mark on the wall, but I think we've always
kind of been honest with ourselves with 2035 to 2040 timeframe at
looking at that next piece of aviation future."
Barclay has seen enough programs and systems go through the process to realize that things don't just happen overnight.
But another aviator disagreed vehemently with Barclay, albeit in a friendly fashion.
"We're shooting for late 20, early 30 on future vertical lift," said
Brig. Gen. Michael Lundy, commander, U.S. Army Aviation Center of
Excellence and Fort Rucker, Ala., speaking in the session that followed
Barclay's.
"I've got the bully pulpit so I can throw that one out," he added in jest.
But he was not joking about how vital FVL is for not just aviation, but for big Army.
With passion, he said, "I understand we've got fiscal constraints, but
we've got to shorten the acquisition cycle. There's lots of mature
technology out there right now that we can get to FVL early.
"So we'll look at requirements, take it through the joint community," he
continued, "but we've got to move faster on it, figure out solutions to
get our feet in the water, because if we don't get our feet into the
water, it's going to die in my opinion."
It's not all about the timeline, however.
Another aviator who has a hand in this birthing process, Brig. Gen.
Robert Marion, with Program Executive Office Aviation, said during one
of the Quad A sessions that it's the journey, not just the destination
that may be the most important part of FVL.
The FVL competition isn't just about delivering "a squad 24 kilometers
to execute a mission. They're proving technologies," he said.
While finding the best replacement for the aging helicopter fleet is of
utmost importance, Marion said the Army may find candy scattered along
the way.
FVL is "going to prove technologies," he said, meaning such things as
variable speed transmissions and lightweight materials that could prove
to be "key enabling technologies," perhaps not just for FVL but for
other systems.
If he's right, more than the goose will be proud of the golden egg.
(For more ARNEWS stories, visit http://www.army.mil/ARNEWS, or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService)
http://www.army.mil/article/125578/Aviators_eager_to_witness_birth_of_Future_Vertical_Lift_aircraft/
Retrieved on 8 May 2014
Written by David Vergun
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