Bell FCX-001

Advanced Medium-Utility Helicopter Proposal

United States | 2030

"The impressive FCX-001 is the Bell Helicopter vision of the future of rotorcraft flight."

Image from official Bell Helicopters marketing materials.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 08/04/2021 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site; No A.I. was used in the generation of this content.

Bell Helicopter's vision of the rotorcraft future involves concepts born through its "FCX-001" development. This sleek offering champions such qualities as A.I.,morphing main blades, thrust-vectoring tail unit, advanced Fly-by-Wire (FbW), and cabin modularity. The helicopter paves the way for an all-new generation of vertical flight capabilities for the next generation and was debuted at Heli-Expo 2017.

In the FCX-001, the fuselage is given a heavily glazed, greenhouse-style appearance, offering excellent vision out-of-the-cockpit as well as the passenger cabin. Glass panels run from nose to the rear of the cabin over, above, and below the occupants, giving both pilot and passengers excellent views from the vehicle. The cabin itself will sport modularity for various seating arrangements (up to 12 passengers) as well as whole-cargo loads as needed making the design wholly versatile depending on mission need. The tricycle undercarriage is wheeled and fixed during flight with a nose leg under the "chin" position and short main legs extending out from under the rear-center mass of the aircraft.

A hybrid propulsion scheme is to power the helicopter, combining the benefits and inherent abilities of proven the turboshaft engine with an electric drive. The pair of main engines is to sit atop the fuselage in the usual way and aspirated by integrated intake sections while being exhausted through vented ports aft. Part of this arrangement is the specially-designed "anti-torque" system with torque cancellation managed through a unique vented thrust-vectoring system found along the empennage. This negates the need for a traditional tail rotor unit, reducing complexity as well as operating noises as a result. The embedded anti-torque system means a more streamlined tailboom than what is achieved through contemporary helicopter design, reducing protrusions at the tail to just a single, small-area vertical fin.

The main rotor features a low-profile mast design with five-bladed arrangement turning in a clockwise fashion. What Bell calls "morphing rotor blades" will give the FCX-001 the ability to "rearrange" its main blades in-flight to better suit particular flight envelopes such as cruising, dashing, and hovering actions. In the existing concept work, the blades have cranked tips.

A virtual cockpit is planned reducing the pilot to one. This deletes the traditional instrument panel and the amount of real estate such components take up in the cockpit. In its place will be lightweight headgear with a simplified hands-on control scheme as a hands-off experience is envisioned, the pilot acting more as a "flight manager" while advanced, autonomous A.I. and digital processing systems handle direct control from Point A to Point B. Three independent flight control computers will be in play for redundancy and maximum safety. In the concept work, the pilot wears a simple lightweight and has a hands-on, touch-control scheme.

NOTE: Performance specs and structural dimensions found on this page are estimates based on the part of the author. Changes to this entry will be made as new information allows.

Content ©MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.

Power & Performance
Those special qualities that separate one aircraft design from another. Performance specifications presented assume optimal operating conditions for the Bell FCX-001 Advanced Medium-Utility Helicopter Proposal.

2 x Turboshaft engines of unknown make, model, and output power with electric drive driving five-bladed main rotor unit.
Propulsion

249 mph
400 kph | 216 kts
Max Speed

19,685 ft
6,000 m | 4 miles
Service Ceiling

621 miles
1,000 km | 540 nm
Operational Range

2,300 ft/min
701 m/min
Rate-of-Climb

Structure
The nose-to-tail, wingtip-to-wingtip physical qualities of the Bell FCX-001 Advanced Medium-Utility Helicopter Proposal.

1
(MANNED)
Crew

37.7 ft
11.50 m
O/A Length

36.1 ft
(11.00 m)
O/A Width

11.5 ft
(3.50 m)
O/A Height

5,842 lb
(2,650 kg)
Empty Weight

6,614 lb
(3,000 kg)
MTOW

Variants
Notable series variants as part of the Bell FCX-001 family line.

FCX-001 - Base Project Designation.

Operators
Global customers who have evaluated and/or operated the Bell FCX-001. Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national aircraft listing.

Total Production: 0 Units
Contractor(s): Bell Helicopters - USA

[ United States (possible) ]

1 / 1

Image from official Bell Helicopters marketing materials.

Going Further...
The Bell FCX-001 Advanced Medium-Utility Helicopter Proposal appears in the following collections:

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