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Bell-Boeing complete first nacelle upgrade on CV-22

By Dan Parsons | January 27, 2022

Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 39 seconds.

Bell has completed the first nacelle improvements modification on an Air Force CV-22 Osprey, part of an ongoing upgrade effort to make the tiltrotor easier and less costly to operate and keep it relevant for another 30 years.

About 60 percent of all maintenance performed on a V-22 occurs in the nacelles, which house critical power components to the V-22’s vertical take-off and landing capabilities and transition to forward flight.

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 20th Special Operations Squadron familiarize themselves with the new nacelle improvement modifications on a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Jan. 7, 2022. Airman 1st Class Drew Cyburt for U.S. Air Force Photo

The Nacelle Improvement program is aimed at simplifying the structure, making components more reliable and the aircraft less costly and time consuming to maintain. The nacelles were initially designed with a series of wires and junction boxes that will be replaced with point-to-point wiring. The new wiring is also more robust, said V-22 program director Kurt Fuller. 

Bell completed the modifications at the Amarillo Assembly Center (AAC), where wing assemblies are attached to new Boeing-built V-22 fuselages and delivered to U.S. Defense Department and international customers. The first mod was completed in December and a second is underway. 

“We have really taken a data-driven engineering approach to the nacelle environments … the items there at the end of the wings that houses the engines and gearboxes and the prop rotors,” Fuller said. “As you might imagine, for a machine like a tiltrotor, it’s where we have a lot of your moving parts in relative motion. That’s also where you might see, you know, higher challenges when it comes to reliability maintainability.”

Parts prone to wear and damage have been made easier to replace and made from stronger materials. Several new access panels will make performing maintenance easier and faster. 

So far, the Bell-Boeing team has completed the non-recurring engineering work on the program and begun the recurring efforts in which aircraft are brought to Amarillo, Texas, for their nacelles to be removed and reconfigured. Then the “big-boned items” like the engines and gearboxes are reinstalled and the aircraft is sent back into operation.

A U.S. Air Force CV-22 completes the first flight with incorporated nacelle improvements, December 2021. U.S. Air Force Photo

 

“Through that effort, we’re going see a significant improvement in reliability and maintainability as we change the wiring architecture and change some of the structural interfaces within the nacelles,” Fuller said. 

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) will be the first to put its CV-22s through the nacelle improvement program, followed closely by the Marine Corps, Fuller said. The first modification was successfully completed in Amarillo after flight testing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. 

“As we get into the pace of mods, we will be referred to somewhat as a NASCAR pit crew, bringing the aircraft in, swapping that out and getting that mod down to about a 30-day turnaround time for the Air Force. 

Bell and Boeing have delivered 95 percent of the U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 program of record, which is about 360 aircraft. It has delivered all but two of the Air Force’s fleet, with only 56 total CV-22s. The newest tiltrotor customer, the U.S. Navy, has received 14 of its CMV-22 carrier onboard delivery aircraft, or just under a third of that intended fleet. Japan also has purchased 17 that are being delivered. Without another foreign military sales (FMS) customer, Fuller said the line will run out of orders in four years, at most.  

Bell and Boeing are “constantly working with our Navy program office and international program office for potential FMS candidates to extend that line as well as new kinds of conversations with our domestic partners,” Fuller said. 

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