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 second quarter of 2026 Bell reported revenue of $1.074 billion, up 6 percent, with the increase coming from H-1 production and MV-75 volume. Segment profit was $75 million, down 6 percent on unfavourable program performance and military program mix. Backlog stood at $7.5 billion and Bell delivered 36 commercial helicopters in the quarter, against 32 a year earlier. Textron’s total revenue for the quarter was $3.827 billion.

Funding for MV-75 is the live financial question. Textron’s full-year outlook assumes the US Army secures an above-threshold reprogramming of an additional $350 million in fiscal 2026 funds, a process Congress was expected to complete in the third quarter. Textron has said that without it, adjusted earnings per share could take a $0.20 to $0.30 hit and cash flow could fall by $150 to $250 million.

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.