Bell Textron advances X-76 stop-fold tiltrotor for DARPA SPRINT program
Bell Textron has been selected to move into detailed design and testing of the X-76, a high-speed vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, under DARPA's SPRINT program.
Bell Textron has won a contract to take its X-76 stop-fold tiltrotor concept through detailed design, manufacturing, assembly and ground testing. Flight tests are planned for early 2028.
The work sits under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, run with US Special Operations Command. The goal is to combine the speed and range of fixed-wing aircraft with the runway independence of helicopters.
DARPA started Phase 1A on November 1, 2023, with four companies working on conceptual designs. In May 2024, Aurora Flight Sciences and Bell Textron received preliminary-design contracts. By June 2025, Bell's design was chosen to proceed to Phases 2 and 3. Phase 2 covers detailed design, manufacturing, assembly and ground testing; Phase 3 is the flight-test program.
Sources
- aerospacetestinginternational.comBell’s X-76: Developing DARPA’s stop-fold tiltrotor for jet-speed VTOL