Industry Bell opens new Manufacturing Technology Center

The Textron Inc. subsidiary Bell Helicopters has unveiled a new 140,000 square foot Manufacturing Technology Center (MTC) in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The ground will be used by the company to work on technologies and processes that support Future Vertical Lift (FVL) aircraft.

Main goal of the new MTC is it, to demonstrate the overall readiness of technologies that allow a successful build of Future Vertical Aircraft. The center provides Bell with capabilities that span all the companies´ core strengths.

Over the past years, Bell was able to celebrate first flights of Vertical Lift Aircraft like the XV-15, the V-22, 609 and 407. These flights took off from the metroplex at Detroit.

Glenn Isbell, vice president, Rapid Prototyping & Manufacturing Innovation commented: “The MTC is the next step in successfully deploying new manufacturing technologies and processes into Bell’s future factories [...] These future factories working together with our teammates and suppliers, will be designed to enable high-quality, high-rate production of the Bell V-280 Valor, Bell 360 Invictus and other future aircraft.”

As main factors for affordable, capable and reliable aircraft of the future, Bell sees strong partnerships with the state and community. To build sustainable FVL aircraft, the right blend of manufacturing technology and investments, together with quality work will be needed.

The MTC was built to accommodate these latest state-of-the-art technologies and digital integration is an integral part of the construct. Bell stated that every inch of the facility will be monitored and controlled by a network that consists of IT, IoT and cybersecurity systems.

"By deploying a networked software infrastructure, the MTC will produce a digital twin of itself that gives everyone a common operating picture of the building, the equipment and the processes," the manufacturer concluded.

Bell has its headquarters at Fort Worth and this MTC is the latest demonstration of the willingness to furthermore contribute to the city´s industry. The company was founded 60 years ago and has since then primarily been working on manufacturing helicopters.