Bell APT 70 Successfully Completes NASA Systems Integration

Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, announced today the successful flight of the Bell Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) 70 as part of a joint flight demonstration with NASA.

Background information on the Bell APT 70

The APT 70 is an autonomous UAV designed to perform multiple missions, including package delivery, critical medical transport, and disaster relief. The APT 70 offers a whole new level of mission capability. The unique UAV can go further, faster and carry payloads at increased ranges and speeds reinforced by the unique design that optimizes energy consumption through its ability to transition from vertical lift to wing-borne flight – an aircraft design approach that Bell has already introduced with on manned aircraft such the tiltrotor V-22 Osprey and V-280 Valor.

With APT, Bell is set to re-define on-demand logistics support across a number of industries, including, for instance, the potential to move medical supplies, tests samples, blood and more through efficient flights. With a payload of up to 70 lbs (32 kg), the UAV can transport 70 blood bags, 72 bottles of water or 46 boxed lunches at speeds up to 90 kts (167 km/h) and, with vertical landing, fully protects the contents of its transport pod. Thanks to its autonomous flight capability and intuitive interface, the simplicitiy of the UAV’s operation means that, for instance, a package of medicine could be delivered to a rural medical center on an outward journey with blood samples for testing replacing the payload on the return journey.