Bell XV-3 – Photos & Video

Photo gallery of a Bell XV-3, The Bell XV-3 (Bell 200) was a tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies. The XV-3 featured an engine mounted in the fuselage with drive shafts transferring power to two-bladed rotor assemblies mounted on the wingtips. The wingtip rotor assemblies were mounted to tilt 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal, which was designed to allow the XV-3 to take off and land like a helicopter but fly at faster airspeeds, similar to a conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

Source: Bell XV-3

The Bell XV-3 was a pioneering aircraft that demonstrated the feasibility of the tiltrotor concept, which combines the vertical take-off and landing capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing plane. The Bell XV-3 was developed by Bell Helicopter under a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies.
The Bell XV-3 had a single engine mounted in the fuselage that powered two wingtip rotors that could tilt 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal. The Bell XV-3 first flew on August 11, 1955, and performed 110 transitions from helicopter to airplane mode between December 1958 and July 1962. The Bell XV-3 program ended when the aircraft was severely damaged in a wind tunnel accident on May 20, 1966. The data and experience from the Bell XV-3 program were instrumental in the development of the Bell XV-15 and the V-22 Osprey, which are operational tiltrotor aircraft today.