Bell V-247 Vigilant

The Bell V-247 Vigilant is a concept from Bell Helicopter for a large unmanned tiltrotor aircraft. Bell created it to meet emerging United States military needs for a runway-independent Group 4 or 5 unmanned aerial vehicle that gives persistent support to ground forces while taking up less space to store and transport. The design takes off vertically on tilting rotors and then transitions to fast forward flight, drawing on the V-22 Osprey, the V-280 Valor and the smaller Eagle Eye. It is planned to have a single engine in the fuselage, a V-shaped tail, and a wing and rotors that swivel along the fuselage so the aircraft fits on a ship or inside a transport aircraft. Missions named for it include electronic warfare, persistent fire support, airborne early warning and resupply. A one eighth scale model was unveiled in September 2016, and Bell was funding the preliminary design while it looked for a customer, likely the US Marine Corps.