STATEMENT OF
JOHN MURPHY
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON
BEFORE THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICE
COMMITTEE
ON THE
U.S. ROTORCRAFT INDUSTRIAL BASE
MARCH 12, 2003
Good afternoon. I am John
Murphey, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Bell Helicopter-Textron. On
behalf of Bell Helicopter, I would like to
thank the Chairman and members of this
Committee for giving me the opportunity to
testify on behalf of the rotorcraft
industry.
The American rotorcraft
industry is at a crossroads.
Near term decision by Congress may very well
determine if the United States maintains its
leadership in military and civilian
rotorcraft or if both of these important
markets are to be dominated by foreign
companies.
At a time when the forces of
international terrorism threaten the lives
and property of Americans inside our own
borders, this nation has never been in
greater need of the kind of aircraft we
build - and of our capacity to innovate and
make our rotorcraft even better. In such
areas as border patrol, anti-terrorist
operations, emergency evacuation and
disaster relief, we in the rotorcraft
industry foresee an ever-growing requirement
for increased mission capability,
flexibility and leap-ahead technology.
But government
investment in aerospace - so strong on the
fixed-wing side - is sorely deficient on the
rotorcraft side of the street.
Bell is a balanced
commercial/military rotorcraft company -
the only one in North America. That
product mix lets us balance the ebb and flow
of military contracts. But maintaining that
commercial/military balance is becoming more
difficult at a time in history when
keeping that leadership and maintaining that
capacity in both military and civil
rotorcraft is increasingly becoming more
important to our nation.
Turbulent Times
By any measure
these are turbulent times.
The world has entered a very
volatile period with a synchronized global
economic downturn, the evolving war on
terror, related regional conflicts.
The global economic
indicators tell the story:
- The US continues to pull
slowly out of recession with 2% GDP growth
in 2002, an improvement on the stalled
economy of 2001 when the growth rate was
only 0.3%.
Although these top-line
economic numbers are bad enough, they mask
the true weakness in those parts of the
economy that most affect the aviation
market. Corporate profits are
down and this is having a big impact on
business investment. With weak profits,
businesses are postponing or delaying
capital investments. Helicopters are big
capital investment items: big for the
manufacturers and big for the buyers.
- US Corporate profits have
been declining for 5 years, are down 30%
since mid-1997 and presently at 1994 levels.
- With profits down,
businesses have cut back on capital
investments. Businesses' fixed investment
levels have declined over 8% in the last 2
years.
- With the exception of
China, that scenario is playing out in the
rest of the world.
This is a serious
recession for those of us in the capital
cycle. It is the
most turbulent business environment we have
seen in at least 10 years.
Impact
on Aviation and Rotorcraft Industry
What does this
mean for the aviation industry in general
and rotorcraft industry in particular?
The aviation industry has
been one of the hardest hit of any sectors
of the economy both domestically and
internationally. Across the whole sector -
from new aircraft orders, to deliveries, to
the volume of airline traffic - there has
been a precipitous decline in activity.
- Large aircraft orders
have collapsed by over 50% since 2000.
- Large aircraft
deliveries lag the order collapse, but
they still declined 35% from 2000 to 2002 --
US airline passenger miles
went down almost 10% last year, on top of a
7% decline in 2001.
- Major US airlines
have lost billions of dollars since 2001 and
are going bankrupt - and 12% of the large
and regional jet fleet is now parked.
The commercial helicopter
market has not been spared these overall
effects and has suffered like other parts of
the aviation industry. Commercial
helicopter deliveries have declined over
30% year to date as our customers adopt a
"wait and see" approach.
It is hard to avoid bad news
in the aviation industry these days and
there is no sign of the overall trend
reversing in the near term.
Seizing
the Opportunity
There is no
doubt about the turbulent times and the
impact on the overall aviation industry -
but what about the opportunities?
I have intentionally spent
some time painting the picture of the
"present state" of the aviation industry,
and it is not a pretty one. Turbulent times
would probably be an understatement. This
is probably not news to anyone, but we need
to understand that background if we are
going to achieve success in the future -and
that is where I want to focus.
With the proper
partnership between Government and Industry,
the future could be very bright for
the rotorcraft industry.
We are probably in one of the most
attractive sectors of the aviation industry
for at least the next 5 to 10 years.
Turbulence means change - it creates winners
as well as losers, benefiting those who can
adapt - and even more, those who do not
simply adapt to change, but can lead it. In
addition, there are always activities that
are less susceptible to, or even
independent of, near-term economic swings.
As an industry we need to focus on these
winners and emphasize activities that beat
the economic swings in the short and long
term. Transformation is not limited to
the military. We must also transform
how we as a nation fund the advanced
rotorcraft technologies that our nation
needs for its economic development and our
own national defense.
The need for rotorcraft -
both civil and military - continues to
expand. Just look at the roles that
helicopters play in the war on terror - from
the dramatic Special Operations missions in
Afghanistan to the daily, bread and butter
survival piece of heliborne logistics. There
simply was no other way to fight the cave
and bunker battles in the highlands without
rotorcraft. It would be hard to
envision any modern conflict without
their use. Our nation's security within our
borders will depend more and more on
tiltrotors and helicopters for border
patrol, Coast Guard operations, and an array
of "first responders" in police, fire,
sheriff, and National Guard units across
America.
But as these requirements
and mission expansion continues, the
government's investment in rotorcraft S&T
and R&D must keep pace - and it is
clearly out of sync.
At a 3-4% level of investment
in R&D, we will never reach the leap-ahead
capabilities that this nation demands.
We need your help to ensure that this
changes.
A) The military market
~ Even in the face of a severe overall
aircraft industry downturn, the overall
rotorcraft market has the capacity to grow
strongly, primarily driven by the North
American military market. Rotorcraft
provide the kind of capability needed for
today's military missions, from surveillance
to troop movement to offensive and defensive
combat. With this emphasis on flexibility,
ease of deployment and mission capability,
rotorcraft are well aligned with the
transformational activities of the DoD.
Military planners recognize these benefits
and should recognize that rotorcraft
continue to demand a larger and larger share
of the growing DoD Procurement and RDT&E
budget. The war on terror and the needs of
Homeland Defense should only serve to
reinforce that growth. But that R&D
demand is not being met. Production
rates are down, production quantities are
down, and investment in rotorcraft S&T and
R&D in the single digits can only be
described as pitifully low. Every year
the rotorcraft industry and the American
Helicopter Society fight for an absurdly
small level of rotorcraft R&D funding from
NASA. In 2002 you helped restore some
critical funding for rotorcraft. The last
three years (02-04) that amount has been
zeroed as a starting point - yet the
commitment to rotorcraft R&D is part of
NASA's charter. This must stop.
The French government
funds fully 100% of rotorcraft R&D. We
aren't asking for that level of support -
but we are asking for a fair share.
B) Service and Support
Business ~ Service and support
activities are a key element of the overall
rotorcraft market. The installed base is
over 60 times the size of the new ship
market. Service and support activities for
the installed base will provide the industry
near-term stability and long-term growth
opportunities and a balance against the
short-term volatility of ship sales,
particularly in the commercial market. They
also provide an ongoing relationship with
our customer base and the continuing
opportunity to upgrade mission capability
and improve the performance and availability
of our ships. While this segment of our
business provides jobs and profits to our
companies it does nothing to improve our
technology base and provide for the future
product needs of our military and commercial
customers.
C) Innovation ~
Innovation is the foundation of this
opportunity - innovative products and
technologies are driving military
procurement and RDT&E growth. We need to
continue to innovate to keep the rotorcraft
market growing and profitable. We need to
work with our customers and our suppliers to
make sure that the right solutions are
developed to satisfy our customers'
requirements.
The Bell Boeing V-22 and
our Tiltrotor UAV, the Bell Eagle Eye, as
well as our commercial tiltrotor, the
BellAgusta BA609 are good examples of an
innovative product fueling market growth.
These very programs that are serving our
nation today are the result of Government
support and funding and Industry partnership
in developing tiltrotor technology in the
1950's.
Just as we have seen
innovative products expand the military
market, we believe that the same effect can
and will happen in the commercial market.
Tiltrotor products such as the BA 609
will expand the commercial rotorcraft market
by providing a dramatic expansion of the
traditional mission capability.
The materials and systems
innovations that enable these revolutionary
aircraft will trickle down to traditional
helicopters over the coming years and drive
market expansion. Any significant
improvement in noise, speed, operating cost
or utility would serve to expand the
traditional helicopter market. There should
be just as much government investment on the
rotorcraft side as there is in the
fixed-wing side.
D) Cost reduction ~
Sadly, low volumes and high development
costs are a fact of life in the
rotorcraft market, making cost a continuing
challenge, both for current operational
activities and for long-term product
planning. We in industry are aggressively
managing our cost and trying to keep ahead
of the cost curve to insure our own
profitability and allow us to provide
greater value to our customer. Cost is a
critical factor for all our customers from
the biggest to the smallest. But DoD
and Congress must help us, by working to
establish rotorcraft production rates that
match those of fixed-wing aircraft
programs. The vibrant rotorcraft industry
that I have just elaborated upon cannot
become a reality as long as rotorcraft
companies are treated like second-class
citizens when it comes to production. To be
truly effective, and for both government and
industry to reap the most benefits, industry
cost-reduction actions must be combined with
increased R&D investment, higher and more
efficient production rates and cost-saving
multi-year buys.
Cost is the challenge, but
luckily there are plenty of actions we can
take and processes we can adopt to control
these costs. At Bell we have divested --
and are continuing to divest ourselves of
our non-core work. We pride ourselves on
our world-class core competencies of thick
composite manufacturing, very high tolerance
gear machining, systems integration and
assembly and those will remain our focus of
effort. Low-end touch labor, sheet metal
manufacturing and other more common efforts
have been outsourced resulting in savings to
both our commercial and military customers.
At Bell we are a leader in using Six
Sigma process improvements, lean
manufacturing, global sourcing,
collaborative development and joint
marketing, supplier development programs and
many other approaches to add value to our
customers and shareholders. Our
owners/shareholders expect it and our
customers demand it.
INDUSTRIAL BASE CONCERNS
Market
projections indicate there may be as much as
$2.5B of Homeland Security investment
earmarked for rotorcraft. In today's market
50% of that will go to a foreign
manufacturer. The French government
owns 20% of that manufacturer. As a
taxpayer, I am outraged that on the federal,
state and local level we would be spending
US tax dollars to buy French helicopters for
Homeland Defense. I might add too that the
biggest factor in many of those buying
decisions is the aggressive pricing that the
French offer. A price supported by their
government's partial ownership and certainly
investment in technology and development.
An additional 15% of that
investment goes to the Dutch company that
bought MD Helicopters after the FTC failed
to quickly approve Bell purchase of this
product line from Boeing. Fully 65% of
the rotorcraft employed in Homeland Security
are foreign. Is that the message we
want to deliver to the American people -
that this country is being defended by
foreign aircraft? It is highly unlikely
that France would ever buy US rotorcraft for
its homeland security needs.
As program development costs
increase, as products become much more
complex and as the size of the business bets
we are taking every day continue to grow,
there is an ever stronger possibility for
continued consolidation.
I do
not have a crystal ball and cannot predict
the next major event, but in the meantime I
believe that we will continue to see
"creeping consolidation" at the program and
product level. Almost all new products are
the result of cross industry collaboration
and this will continue. The Europeans are
coming to America with their products:
products developed with substantial
government funding. They are seeking US
partners to produce the products in the US
and they will find them. But European
products manufactured in the US do not do
anything to develop or enhance our nations
capability in the engineering and
manufacturing technologies that are so
important to sustained viability in this
industry. Are we headed to a point where US
manufacturers could simply be assembly
subcontractors to European firms that
develop and own the technology that was
funded by European governments?
Business /
Manufacturing Processes
Bell has
transformed it self over the past two years
in order to remain competitive in the
changing world environment. We have
streamlined our processes, removing
non-value-added or outdated procedures to
reduce overhead and bring our costs under
control while increasing our quality. We
have reorganized into business units with
profit and loss responsibilities and centers
of excellence where the core of our business
resides. We are empowering our people and
equipping our factory with modern machines
and integrated planning to provide quality
products at best value.
Bell and the rest of the US
rotorcraft industry must have the support
that only the Government can provide if it
is to remain a viable part of America's
economic engine and a contributor to our
national defense.
Joint
Advanced Rotorcraft Technology Center of
Excellence (JART COE)
There is a pressing national need for the
creation of a center of excellence that
specifically deals with advanced VTOL and
Rotorcraft technologies. It is exactly
these kinds of past investments that have
produced the breakthrough technologies that
led to tiltrotor development and production
that is proving America's leadership in this
particular area.we must nurture and sustain
this concept.
We envision this center being
a Joint service (Army, Navy, Air Force,
Marines and Coast Guard) and industry entity
with strong leadership. This COE could do
for rotorcraft what the Joint Advanced
Technology (JAST) Office did for the JSF and
strike/fighter technology. It should be a
COE that funds continued development of
advanced technologies beyond that of the 150
knot cruise speed limit of conventional
helicopters. Bell Helicopter would champion
this concept and fully participate.
This office would be a
logical choice to fund private industry and
government teams to develop, design and fly
advanced proof-of-concept prototypes.
Mr. Chairman, I believe
this should be seen as a national priority
for the United States. I believe that this
National Center of Excellence should be
quickly established and that it should be
chartered and funded with a minimum of $100
million a year for the next 5 years.
In our mind, it is time
for a "go-to-the-moon-in-ten-years" national
effort. The
Congress, the Administration, NASA, DoD, the
Department Of Transportation, the Rotorcraft
Industry, the FAA, air traffic controllers
and the airports come together, form a posse
as we say in Texas, and ride out to solve
this - while there is still time.
America can lead the way.
Attachment
Introduction to Bell Helicopter
Let me tell
you a little about Bell Helicopter. We are
a world leader in the design and
manufacturing of vertical lift aircraft for
customers around the world. We are the
sole US rotorcraft manufacturer with a sales
and manufacturing base split equally between
commercial and military customers.
We're a subsidiary of Textron,
an $11 billion multi-industry company with
49,000 employees throughout the
United States and in another
40 countries.
Headquartered in Fort Worth,
Texas, Bell has built 35,000 helicopters
since 1946, when the Bell Model 47 became
the first helicopter in the world certified
for commercial use. Over the past 57 years
Bell has been the leading innovator in
vertical lift technology. We designed and
built some 12,000 Huey helicopters.with
thousands still in service performing vital
roles and missions every day. We designed
and built the world's first dedicated attack
helicopter, the AH-1G Cobra.
We pioneered tiltrotor
technology. From
the XV-3, a single-engine piston powered
tiltrotor in the 1950's, to the XV-15, a
multi-engine turbine powered tiltrotor built
in 1977 (and still flying) to the V-22
Osprey, the Bell Eagle Eye tiltrotor UAV
(which soon will be in service with the US
Coast Guard) to the commercial BA609 being
developed by Bell and its partner
AgustaWestland, Bell is the world leader in
this extraordinary aviation technology.
As we celebrate the 100th
anniversary of the Wright Brothers' flight,
we are proud to note that the Bell name has
been associated with some of the most
remarkable achievements in aviation over the
past century. In addition to what we've
achieved in vertical lift technology, I
would like to point out that our parent, the
Bell Aircraft Company, designed, built and
flew America's first jet aircraft - the P-59
Airacomet. We also designed and built the
Bell X-1 - Chuck Yeager's "Glamorous Glennis,"
the first plane to break the sound barrier.
And we developed the first variable swing
wing aircraft. Over the past half-century
we have received two Collier Awards for our
aerospace achievements.
Bell Helicopter operates ten
plants with over three million square feet
of manufacturing floor space. The company
employs about 6,500 people.
With advanced technology
design/engineering and high quality
manufacturing, Bell aircraft are still
acknowledged to be the most reliable
helicopters in the world. And today, Bell
commercial and military aircraft can be
found flying in over 120 nations,
accumulating fleet time at a rate in excess
of ten flight hours every minute of the day.
In keeping with our
reputation as the helicopter company most
responsive to its customers, Bell has
representatives in over 50 countries. In
addition, Bell maintains an extensive spare
parts distribution network that assures
spare parts shipment to customers, military
and commercial, anywhere in the world within
24 hours.
I am proud of this great
industry of ours and I am proud of the
achievements and contributions that we at
Bell have made to aviation all these years.
ONGOING
MILITARY PROGRAMS
The V-22 Program:
The V-22 has a cruise speed
of over 250 knots; a payload of over 10,000
pounds or 24 fully equipped combat troops
and a range of 700 -1100 nautical miles. It
is designed from the bottom up as a
survivable, rugged, all-weather VTOL
aircraft that can operate from amphibious
ships and confined areas on the
battlefield. It has the unique ability to
self-deploy from the US to any of the
world's hot spots in less than three days.
It can provide tactical
delivery capability of Marines and Special
Operations Forces directly to their
objective under cover of darkness deep into
enemy territory avoiding the potential choke
points and return safely without refueling
enroute. Its sophisticated avionics suite
can protect it from enemy threats and
provide accurate navigational direction for
surgical strikes or coordinated overmatching
firepower.
The ongoing flight test
programs at NAS Patuxent River and Edwards
AFB are proving the viability of the V-22,
and we believe it will soon become a major
contributor to the US arsenal of modern
weapon systems. The V-22 has recently
been designated as one of only four
Transformational programs in DoD.
This program is
Bell's number one priority.
AH-1Z / UH-1Y Attack and
Utility Helicopter Upgrade Program:
The Marine Corps has 180
AH-1W SuperCobra gunships and 100 UH-1N
utility helicopters. The AH-1Z and UH-1Y
helicopter program will upgrade those
aircraft and provide a major improvement to
the Marine Corps' light attack and utility
warfighting capability. These aircraft have
84% commonality - by part number - to reduce
the logistics and training burden, while
providing a modern, advanced technology
asset to improve the attack and utility
mission.
The AH-1Z incorporates an
integrated weapons platform that can react
to modern enemy threats with pinpoint
accuracy and assured destruction. Its
advanced technology, unparalleled Target
Sight System, enhanced situational
awareness, speed and long-range weapons
systems allow it to operate from long range.
The AH-1Z's combat hardness and onboard
defensive armament suite protects it from
enemy firepower in the close-in battle.
The UH-1Y is a major
improvement in capability for the light
utility fleet. The payload is doubled, the
range is 50% longer and its speed is 20%
faster than the present utility fleet.
Because this aircraft is deployed with the
AH-1Z and shares so many common components,
the overall procurement, training and
operational costs are significantly lower
than any other combination of helicopters.
We are very proud to
announce that the Coast Guard has selected
the Bell Eagle Eye TiltRotor Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle (UAV) as part of its Deepwater
program. With
Lockheed Martin as the architect and Bell as
the UAV airframe supplier, we have a
formidable team to meet the needs of the
Coast Guard. The Coast Guard will buy 69
aircraft and 50 ground and shipboard control
stations.
The Bell Eagle Eye can
operate vertically from Coast Guard cutters
or Air Stations, travel up to 110 miles at
speeds up to 200 knots, and provide
reconnaissance with a 200-pound payload
package for three hours before returning to
base. It can operate up to 20,000 feet to
maintain line-of-sight with both its target
and its base. The HV-911's simplicity, VTOL
capability, high-speed cruise, and
sophisticated electronic payload will vastly
improve the Coast Guard's ability to provide
Homeland Security both onshore and
offshore. This aircraft can be depended
upon to provide critical information to
first responders quickly, in order to
facilitate appropriate action in the event
of a terrorist incident.
Bell's Eagle Eye is another
transformational asset being used by a major
contributor to Homeland Security -- the US
Coast Guard.
Bell
is actively pursuing several UAVs for the US
military services. Building on our Eagle
Eye experience, we are studying the Army's
FCS UAV requirements, their extended range,
multi-purpose program, the Comanche
companion and the classified, DARPA/Army
Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft (UCAR) UAV
program. We are providing information to
both the Marine Corps and the Navy, should
they determine they need a UAV with VTOL,
high altitude, long range and high-speed
capability.
The OH-58D Kiowa Warrior is
the current armed reconnaissance workhorse
of the US Army. The Safety Enhancement
Program (SEP) brings all variants of this
armed scout up to a single baseline
configuration.
The Army's TH-67 is its
initial entry helicopter flight trainer.
Bell delivers both VFR and IFR versions of
these aircraft to the Army Aviation Center
at Fort Rucker, Alabama.
ONGOING
COMMERCIAL PROGRAMS
The Bell
commercial helicopter product line includes
both single and dual turbine engine light
and medium helicopters which are capable of
performing the full range of vertical lift
aircraft missions, including corporate
transport, emergency medical services, civil
law enforcement, homeland security, and
general utility.
What is unique is the synergy between
commercial and military development, which
has benefited both sides.
The five-seat Bell 206B-3
JetRanger, the civilian derivative of the
U.S. Army's OH-58 Kiowa scout helicopter,
boasts the best single-engine safety record
in the world. Its reputation for safety and
reliability and for having the lowest
overall operating costs in its class has
made the 206B-3 the most popular turbine
helicopter ever built. Today, the 206B-3,
with minor modifications, is the training
helicopter for all U.S. military (including
Coast Guard) helicopter pilots (TH-57 &
TH-67).
The Bell 206L-4 LongRanger
began with all the best features of the
206B-3. To that were added a stretched
cabin to accommodate seven seats and a more
powerful engine. Its increased capability,
coupled with safety and low operating cost
characteristics similar to those of the
206B-3, provide superior value to helicopter
operators around the globe.
The Bell 407 incorporates the
high performance, combat proven, composite
dynamic components of the U.S. Army's OH-58D
Kiowa Warrior to achieve sports car-like
handling and exceptional capability. This
seven-seat, single-engine helicopter
delivers the best speed, payload, and range
in its class.
Bell further adapted and
improved dynamic components of the OH-58D
Kiowa Warrior and coupled them with a roomy,
open, composite fuselage of modular design
and powerful Pratt & Whitney PW207D engines
to achieve the Bell 427. Fast, smooth and
reliable, the Bell 427 is a superior
seven-seat, twin-engine helicopter that
delivers.
The Bell 430 brings together
superior technology and sleek aesthetics to
provide the smoothest helicopter ride
available in the world today. The 430's
advanced rotor design is so smooth, fast,
agile, and rugged, that its elements have
been incorporated into the UH-1Y and AH-1Z.
The eleven-seat Bell 430 epitomizes
excellence in every aspect and detail.
Since its introduction, the
Bell 412, the latest civilian derivative of
the venerable UH-1 "Huey" military
helicopter, has enjoyed unparalleled market
acceptance. With its powerful twin engines,
wide open cabin and durable construction;
the fifteen-seat 412EP has become the
rotorcraft of choice for offshore oil
support operators, international militaries,
emergency medical services, and law
enforcement organizations worldwide, and it
is the most popular medium twin-engine
helicopter available.
The latest in a series of
collaborative efforts between Bell
Helicopter and Agusta dating back to 1952
has resulted in the formation of the Bell/Agusta
Aerospace Company, bringing together the two
companies' unmatched technological,
marketing, sales and after sales support
assets. The significant design, development
and production synergies thus created are
bringing to the world two new commercial
aircraft, the AB139 helicopter and the BA609
tiltrotor. The latter is the world's first
civil tiltrotor, a 6-9 passenger aircraft.
The first BA609 has recently completed its
highly successful first flight on 7 March
2003 at our Flight Research Center in
Arlington, Texas. We have an exhaustive
flight test program leading to certification
and first deliveries of this aircraft to
commercial customers beginning in the first
quarter of 2007. So far we have some 66
orders with deposits for the BA609 from 42
customers in 18 countries around the globe.
The Bell/Agusta joint venture is also
producing a new medium twin-engine
helicopter known as the AB139, which is
currently in flight certification testing.
The AB139 combines the
benefits of proven technology and the latest
new-generation system integration. With a
spacious cabin and with power to spare, the
AB139 has the best vertical lift capability
in the medium-twin class. The fifteen-seat
AB139 is setting the new standard against
which all medium-twin helicopters will be
measured to satisfy the operators' needs of
today and tomorrow.
FUTURE MILITARY PROGRAMS
I've told you about our current military
efforts, so now let me tell you about what
we at Bell are doing for the future of
military rotorcraft. Understandably, we
see the future through the lens of a
tiltrotor, versus a pure helicopter.
We believe that the success of the V-22
Osprey and BA609 civil tiltrotor will fuel
an expansion of the industry not seen since
the 1960s, when rotorcraft first truly
blossomed as an industry. As those two
aircraft become operational and complete
missions that no other aircraft in the world
can accomplish, the depth and breadth of
missions that they are capable of will
explode on the scene. Today the public sees
tiltrotors as replacements for 32-year-old
traditional helicopters. The first time an
MV-22 rescues noncombatants from a burning
embassy, or a CV-22 completes a heroic
operation in one night, then the rest of DoD
will understand the possibilities and become
tiltrotor proponents. We are doing advanced
concept development that will provide a
smorgasbord of mission applications for DoD
customers.
The Marine Corps already has
this vision in that they are looking at an
All-VTOL Force of the future. Their
roadmap requires a VTOL capability for all
missions currently flown by helicopters,
fighters, attack and transport fixed wing
aircraft. Ambitious to be sure, but then
the Marines are well known for their
innovative and resourceful approach to the
challenges of warfare. Additionally, the
Special Operations Command has asked for our
input on a large tiltrotor aircraft as a
possible successor to both the AC-130
Specter gunship and the MC-130 Talon.
Let me tell you about a
few of these concepts of ours.
Building on the success of
the V-22, Bell's Heavy Lift, Quad
Tiltrotor (QTR), has been in development
since 1998. This is a 150,000 lb
C-130-sized aircraft that will employ all
the benefits of a tiltrotor with the load
carrying capacity of a cargo plane. We have
been working with DARPA on 3 consecutive
contracts to reduce the risk of building a
full-scale demonstrator of the QTR. DARPA
has sponsored the development of an overall
QTR technology roadmap, and shared the cost
for hover model and wind tunnel model
testing. This aircraft will be able to
vertically deliver a 20-ton payload 500-1000
miles. Specifically designed for
compatibility with the Army's Future Combat
System (FCS), the QTR will be able to move
the Army's Objective Force equipment and
personnel from both strategic airfields and
logistics ships directly to the
battlefield. More importantly, it will not
need an airfield - prepared or unprepared -
to land upon. The Quad Tiltrotor will allow
the Marine Corps to move its personnel and
major equipment packages (up to 20-tons)
from the Enhanced Naval Sea Base directly to
objectives far inland. Anti-access actions
by the enemy will be rendered impotent,
because the QTR will bypass the beaches and
seaports that may suffer from port denial
and mining threats. The QTR can relieve the
need to completely clear the expected
shallow water mines that threaten an
amphibious assault.
A
Special Operations variant will provide
organic firepower and refueling capability
to the Special Operations Forces to increase
their effectiveness in their crucial special
missions. Its ability to hover makes the
QTR capable of landing anywhere on the
battlefield or in the urban environment to
evacuate the civilian population or military
forces under terrorist threat, or during
natural or manmade disasters.
But we haven't stopped at
heavy lift. Other areas of concept
development involve attack and escort
versions of the tiltrotor for use with both
the V-22 and the QTR. These range from
reaping the benefits of commonality by
mating the V-22 wing and propulsion systems
with a different fuselage and cockpit, which
would create an attack tiltrotor with A-10
characteristics, to developing a completely
new design for a stealthy attack/escort
tiltrotor. A more radical design that
has already seen some wind-tunnel time is
our Stop-Fold TiltRotor (SFTR) concept
vehicle. If a tiltrotor combines the
best characteristics of a helicopter and a
turboprop, this aircraft will combine the
best aspects of a tiltrotor and a jet.
The SFTR's unique design allows it to
take-off and land like either a helicopter
or a turbofan jet. At low speeds (up to 150
knots), it operates like a conventional
tiltrotor, but above that speed its rotors
can be feathered, stopped, and folded along
the nacelles, and the turbofans will convert
from shaft drive to thrust - giving the
aircraft a speed range of zero to its power
limit. High subsonic, or even supersonic
speeds are possible with this design. The
SFTR provides jet performance while "up and
away" with the easy maneuverability,
reasonable downwash and hover efficiency of
a tiltrotor during the takeoff and landing
portion of flight. Now that will be one
heck of an aircraft.
Civil
Applications
The beauty of
tiltrotors is that they are equally
beneficial in the commercial market.
Civil tiltrotors are being certified as we
speak. The previously mentioned BA609 has
just completed its history-making first
flight for a passenger-carrying commercial
tiltrotor. This aircraft combines the
speed, altitude and comfort of a turboprop
with the vertical takeoff and landing
capabilities of a helicopter. Twice as fast
as helicopters of similar capacity, the
BA609 tiltrotor's unique capabilities and
performance characteristics promise to make
it one of the most useful and versatile
aircraft in aviation history. We expect it
to be a best seller in the near term
civilian marketplace.
With the Marines and Air
Force, we are looking at military missions
it may fill in the future, such as an
initial entry trainer for both MV and CV-22
pilots at flight school.
Use of
civil TiltRotors in the nation's
transportation system
Everyone has suffered through delays,
cancellations and the general aggravation
that comes with the state of congestion in
our country's airports. And while Congress
and the Department of Transportation hold
hearings and commissions study and muse over
the problem, the answer has been available
for nearly two decades. The revolution that
rides the Tiltrotor technology of the V-22
offers the United States the opportunity to
alleviate a good deal of that congestion
with a Runway Independent Tiltrotor
Aircraft.
Air traffic is now projected
to increase at about 6% per year for the
foreseeable future. At this compounded rate,
we will see twice
as many people traveling in the next ten
years as we do today.
Although 9/11 slowed the air
traffic in this country, the expectation is
that congestion will return in the near
future. In the two years before the
terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington, DC we had seen almost total
gridlock in our skies, especially during the
summer months. Not a week went by without a
major news story reporting on "Our Crowded
Skies."
A July 2002 report entitled
"The National Economic Impact of Civil
Aviation" by DRI-WEFA showed that in the
year 2000 alone, congestion cost this
country $9.4B, and even if all presently
planned improvements to air traffic are
incorporated on schedule, the cost is
expected to grow to $11+ Billion per year by
2012 in constant year dollars! Over
that 12-year period a total of $156.7
Billion will be lost to the US economy due
to congestion in the nation's air traffic
system.
When weather and visibility
reduction conditions hit, the planes begin
to back up. In short order, airplane-landing
rates stretch out. Each delay pushes the
next airplane even later. After a short
time aircraft are backed up in the stack
awaiting landing instructions. These
landing delays eventually cause the air
traffic controllers to begin holding
aircraft on the ground at their take-off
points. Aircraft begin to be held on
taxiways and at the gates. Then gate
departures are delayed and people wind up
sitting at the airport until their turn
comes to enter the daisy chain.
Most of the time today, in
clear weather, the airlines and airports can
handle the number of take-offs and landings
they have scheduled each day. But if a
weather delay or some other event slows down
the system somewhere, there is almost no
elasticity in that system to take up the
slack, and a total slowdown is unavoidable.
To help the airlines show a better "on time"
record, they have begun to add 10-20 minutes
to their scheduled trip times to provide a
buffer.
For flights less than 600
miles, due to air traffic, routing, queuing
and ground taxi time, the average
published speed from gate-to-gate of a 550
MPH airliner drops to less than 300 knots;
and the shorter the trip, the slower the
average speed. We are aware of at least one
route in the United States where the average
speed is less than the stall speed of the
aircraft!
With a projected doubling of
the nation's air travelers over the next ten
years, the problems we now see caused solely
by weather will become commonplace events --
even in good weather. All the time, every
business-commuting day, at least five days a
week, we will be seeing a slow down. The
Department of Transportation wants to
increase the number of airports, or add more
runways to existing airports, or increase
the size of the airplanes. But these ideas
are falling on deaf ears because of
environmental concerns.
Airbus is looking at 550 to
600 passenger airliners. While that may
sound great - using one big jet to fly
everybody to New York at the same time --
past experience shows that most air
travelers - especially business travelers -
consider scheduling flexibility to be
extremely important. DFW is trying to add
an eighth runway to its airport, and Chicago
O'Hare has major community noise abatement
issues today that cost it over $300 million
per year. This drives up landing fees and
thus ticket prices.
While the solutions above
seem on the surface to be reasonable, public
opposition appears strong enough to slow
down - or even halt - the process.
The big aircraft will help
the long haul, hub-to-hub market. But they
will not help the high frequency,
short haul markets, which comprise the
majority of the airport movements at most
congested airports.
Bell has an ongoing study
that is beginning to show some very
interesting information.
When you look at the major hub airports
across America, and in Japan and Europe, you
find that the majority of the flights
passing through these airports are not going
very far. For example, at DFW, an airport
most of us would consider a long haul
airport, over 40% of the flights go less
than 600 statute miles! At Chicago O'Hare,
another long haul airport, the number is an
amazing 65%. But it's when you start
marching up the Eastern Seaboard that the
numbers are staggering. Washington
Reagan comes in at 80%, and at Newark we
find that fully 90% of its flights go
less than 600 miles!
If
there were a way to remove these short haul
aircraft from the traffic patterns and allow
them to approach and depart the airport
without impacting the longer haul aircraft,
clearly many slots would open up. Traffic
could be increased, and most of today's
major airports could handle their projected
capacity needs well into the next decades.
We at Bell believe there
is a way - by applying the
technologies exemplified by the V-22, the
Bell Agusta 609 civil Tiltrotor and the Quad
Tiltrotor. Tiltrotor Aircraft can be built
with passenger capacity from 10 to over 100
seats. These Tiltrotors, as you will hear
later, can simultaneously land and take-off
from the major airports without impacting
the normal, daily airline traffic. The
Tiltrotor's ability to fly like an airplane,
yet approach, land, and takeoff like a
helicopter will allow it to safely operate
independent of the runways, thus moving more
passengers per hour through the airport.
We envision the Tiltrotor
would land and take-off from existing unused
portions of the airports. A concrete pad
measuring 100 X 1500 feet, or a short stub
runway is all it would need for Category A
operations. Better yet, the civil Tiltrotor
can penetrate the populated airspace
surrounding the airport in its quiet,
airplane mode, convert to helicopter mode
over the airport property, and make a gentle
50-knot helicopter descent and landing.
Takeoffs can be made from the same location
with safe helicopter-like steep departures
that still allow conversion to airplane mode
for cruise - achieving a quiet takeoff
before leaving airport airspace.
This concept of operations
can keep the noise COMPLETELY over the
airport property!
The Tiltrotor can both
increase the capacity of the air traffic
systems around the world and help to reduce
the environmental impact of noise
pollution. This low noise capability may
even allow existing General Aviation
airports that have been closed to scheduled
air service because of noise to be reopened,
allowing air transportation access to return
to many regions of the country that have
lost it in the past.
The positive economic impact
to those areas can only be imagined.
It
will take time to develop and produce these
aircraft, but it sounds like time is not on
our side. For many years now people have
talked about the coming gridlock in the air
traffic system - but it always seemed to be
somewhere in the future. Well the future is
here.
I think because we see a
steady growth in air traffic requirements we
have been lulled into thinking the problems
would get worse at the same pace, and we
would eventually find a way to solve them.
We need to take a lesson from
our compatriots on the groundside of
transportation. The interstate highway
studies have found that when freeway traffic
is moving along at 65 miles per hour, all
cars and drivers have a comfort zone, and
the flow is continuous and steady. There is
some point, however, where the number of
cars reaches a saturation point. All cars
are still moving at 65 and all seems well.
But if you introduce only 5% more cars onto
that freeway, then the average speed will
slow all the way to 30 miles per hour.
If 10% more vehicles are
allowed to join the flow of traffic. it
stops! The comfort zones have all been
violated and cars begin switching lanes,
people slow down and, what seemed like a
nice drive turns into a nightmarish
gridlock. We believe that this is what
happened to the air traffic system for the
past two summers before 9/11. The air
traffic was flowing along at or near
saturation for clear weather, then, when the
weather delays hit, everything grinds to a
stop. There is no scenario that we see that
will lessen this inevitability as air
traffic demand continues to increase.
Something must be done
quickly or we will find that all of us - the
airlines, the airports, the traveling
public, the package express companies, and
air commerce in general will slow to a
crawl. We believe that introduction of VTOL
aircraft in general and Tiltrotors in
particular, can alleviate this potential
threat, and can do so for many years to come
It is expected that the costs
of Tiltrotor operations will be somewhat
higher than airline operations when only
comparing the aircraft to each other, but
when the costs of delays, congestion, new
airports and runways and noise abatement is
included this new system can be quite
competitive.
In addition, countries like
Brazil, China and Russia with their large
land masses, dispersed population and poor
infrastructure can import Tiltrotors to not
only improve their transportation and
economy, but provide major business
relationships which can aid our efforts to
neutralize terror organizations and make the
world a safer place for commerce and
industry. Ultimately, the quality of life
on the entire planet can be improved.
Commercial Helicopter Improvements
Many of
Bell's commercial products are being
challenged in the marketplace by newer
designs offered primarily by our chief
competitor from Europe, the French-based
Eurocopter. Bell is investigating
technology required to develop a
breakthrough family of helicopters primarily
for the commercial market, but which could
also serve the U.S. Armed Forces.
Technology gaps that we are exploring
include rotor systems that can fly at
significantly higher cruise speeds than
current aircraft with exceptional ride and
handling qualities; noise control
technologies providing outstanding community
noise abatement and a conversation-quiet
interior; airline levels of reliability; and
low manufacturing cost. These will provide
improved returns to Bell and low operating
costs for our customers. Additionally, we
are encouraging our engine suppliers to
develop engines for this family of aircraft
that provide significant reduction in fuel
consumption and operating costs. These are
the kinds of investments that provide
technology leadership for our company and
our nation.
SUMMARY
Advanced helicopters and tiltrotors will
be used in all sizes and shapes by both
civil and military aviation in the future,
and that is why we are so optimistic about
the VTOL business. But a reasonable level
of government support must underwrite our
optimism. We need your help.
Our industry needs to be supported by a
significant level of investment from NASA
and by military S&T and R&D, to bring
advanced rotorcraft technologies to
maturity. Rotorcraft investment
should at least equal the support given to
fixed-wing development.
We need the Joint Advanced Rotorcraft
Technology Center Of Excellence to be
established. We need higher production
rates, increased production quantities, and
a commitment to multiyear procurement. We
need DoD, NASA and/or DARPA funding for
private industry initiatives to develop,
design and fly proof-of-concept advanced
prototypes. This
VTOL need is in its infancy. As the
mission requirements grow, so will the
need. Bell intends to be at the forefront
of this rotorcraft revolution, and we will
do everything in our power to ensure
American dominance and pre-eminence. But
it needs to be a government / industry
partnership that shares both risk and
reward. We are a uniquely American
industry, and Bell is a uniquely American
company. We need
your help because it's good for America.
Thank you for your
time and for giving me this opportunity to
discuss the challenges and the opportunities
of the American rotorcraft industry. I look
forward to any questions you may have.
John Murphey
Chairman and CEO
Bell Helicopter
A Textron Company
