Bell Textron

Bell Textron

Bell Textron is a Fort Worth, Texas rotorcraft manufacturer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Textron Inc. It builds military and commercial helicopters, produces the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor with Boeing, and is developing the US Army’s next-generation assault tiltrotor alongside autonomous aircraft for defence and commercial use.

Key Products

• MV-75 Cheyenne (formerly V-280 Valor) — the tiltrotor selected by the US Army in 2022 under the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft programme to succeed the Black Hawk. The Army approved Milestone B in August 2024, making it a programme of record and moving it into engineering and manufacturing development, with six prototypes under contract. Low-rate initial production is planned for 2028 and initial fielding for 2030.
• V-22 Osprey — built jointly with Boeing for the US Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force Special Operations Command and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, with roughly 400 aircraft in service.
• APT — an autonomous electric cargo drone platform for logistics and delivery, developed partly under the US Air Force Agility Prime programme.
• Model 505 / 429 / 407 — Bell’s commercial helicopter line, serving law enforcement, oil and gas and utility operators.

Business and financial position

Bell is a segment of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT). Bell’s full-year 2025 revenue was $4.28 billion, up 20 percent on $3.57 billion in 2024, driven by military work — a second consecutive year of 20 percent military growth, led by the MV-75 ramp — while commercial deliveries fell. Segment profit was $363 million, slightly down from $370 million in 2024, and backlog closed the year at $7.8 billion.

In the third quarter of 2026 Bell reported revenue of $933 million, down 9 percent, mostly from lower MV-75 volume. Segment profit was $76 million, down 17 percent. Backlog stood at $7.6 billion and Bell delivered 29 commercial helicopters in the quarter, against 30 a year earlier.

Funding for MV-75 was the live financial question this year. Textron’s outlook had assumed the US Army would secure an above-threshold reprogramming of an additional $350 million in fiscal 2026 funds, and it had warned that without it adjusted earnings per share could take a $0.20 to $0.30 hit. On 29 October Textron said the Army had received congressional approval for the reprogramming, and it raised its full-year outlook. Its quarterly filing the same day tied the first production order to the Army’s 2027 budget. If that order comes during 2027, Textron expects a charge of $110 million to $150 million on the largely fixed-price option, up from $60 million to $110 million when it expected the order in late 2026 or early 2027.

Why it matters

The FLRAA win is the most significant US Army rotorcraft contract in decades and makes Bell the supplier of the Army’s next-generation assault aviation fleet into the 2030s. Delivering it at scale and on schedule will define Bell’s defence relevance for that period.

FlightBrief’s read is that the concentration cuts both ways: Bell has converted MV-75 into two years of 20 percent military growth, but the programme is now large enough that a funding gap in a single fiscal year moves the parent company’s earnings guidance. The APT autonomous cargo work is a much smaller bet and does not offset that.