History
The Bell Eagle Eye has the appearance of a conventional aircraft with tilt rotors at the end of each wing that allow it to maneuver up or down and hover. Bell Helicopter Textron Incorporation (BHTI) became involved with the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program by taking the wind tunnel V-22 model, using off the shelf helicopter parts, i.e., engine, drive shafts, gear boxes, etc. and built the Eagle Eye tilt rotor UAV.
The Eagle Eye has a wing span of 15.2 ft, is 17.9 ft in length, is 5.7 ft high, and weighs around 2,000 pounds (depending on payload). The first flight test (hover only) were conducted at BHTI facility in Dallas, Texas during the winter/spring of 1992.
After successful hover flight tests, the government and contractor teams moved to Yuma Proving Grounds (YPG) for flight test during the third quarter of 1993. The flight tests were very successful and the Eagle Eye flew in helicopter mode, converted through the transition mode to aircraft mode. 35 flights were conducted with a total flight time of 15 hours. Average flight hour per sortie was .43 hrs/flt. Maximum airspeed attained was 159 knots at an operating altitude of 1,550 feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL).
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