September 29, 2010 - Northrop Grumman Corporation and Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, have moved a significant step closer to being able to offer military users a vertical unmanned system that can ferry cargo either internally or externally over extended distances. 

Early this month, the team applied external power for the first time to the main computers and associated subsystems for its new Fire-X medium-range vertical unmanned aerial system (VUAS), currently in final integration and test at Bell Helicopter's Xworx rapid prototyping facility in Fort Worth, Texas. 

First flight for the new extended range, cargo-hauling VUAS, which is based on the FAA-certified Bell 407 airframe, is expected by the end of CY2010. 

The team is also installing and validating the software that will perform critical guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) functions for the new system, he added. Over the next month, the Northrop Grumman/Bell Fire-X team expects to conduct preliminary flights of the air vehicle in Fort Worth in a manned configuration to validate its GN&C system, then convert it back to an unmanned system. After completion of ground testing and engine runs, the air vehicle will be ferried, in an optionally piloted configuration, to the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz. for final testing before Fire-X's first demonstration flight in an unmanned configuration. 

Fire-X is a fully autonomous, four-blade, single-engine unmanned helicopter that combines the best of two proven air systems in a low cost, fast-fielding package: the versatile reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition architecture of the U.S. Navy's MQ-8B Fire Scout vertical takeoff and landing tactical UAV, and the extended range, payload and cargo hauling capabilities of the commercially mature Bell 407 helicopter.  Fire-X offers commanders a useful load of more than 3,000 pounds for fuel, payloads and/or cargo. That load can typically support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions up to 16 hours long, or cargo missions of 2,500 pounds out to a range of 110 nautical miles.