{"id":7264,"date":"2022-05-02T09:48:12","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T13:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7264"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:26:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:26:55","slug":"bell-is-leading-the-way-with-next-level-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2022\/05\/02\/bell-is-leading-the-way-with-next-level-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Bell Is Leading the Way With Next-level Technology!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Interesting things are going on at Bell, formerly Bell Helicopter. They have changed from creating helicopters to the broader tech world. They have a few new products in the pipeline that could change the way that the world sees them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nick Pellas started working for Bell about 10 years ago after he left the Army. While he was in the Army, he repaired helicopters and went to school. There he got his bachelor\u2019s degree in structural engineering. A good friend was able to get him the job at Bell. Nick started out working on the military helicopters, where he made sure that the helicopters wouldn\u2019t develop cracks. After doing that type of work for a while, he started to wonder if there was something more exciting that he could do. While he enjoyed the work and his team was great, he was still looking for something more.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bell Nexus displayed at the Uber Elevate Summit 2019. The Nexus project is a partnership with Uber and Bell to transport people short distances in an electric-powered aircraft. Photo by: Akihiro Mizutani.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nick is excited about a new aircraft from Bell. \u201cBell has partnered with Uber and Lyft to start developing an electric air taxi. This will be great for congested cities like New York. It will allow someone or a small group of people to travel between buildings within the city.\u201d While they are still working on major parts of the vehicle, they <\/span>have<\/b> created a four-fan and a six-fan helicopter that only uses electricity. \u201cIt will be able to seat about five passengers and the pilot. There are also talks about having an autonomous version of the vehicle.\u201d Just imagine having a meeting on the other side of town during rush-hour traffic. You could hop in the Nexus and be at your goal in less time than it would in a car!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet, it\u2019s not just moving people that Bell is putting their talented staff in. Nick is also involved with the new delivery drone called the Autonomous Pod Transport, or APT. This has applications for both military and the civilians. He said, \u201cThe APT will be able to deliver up to 100 pounds of cargo to soldiers in hard-to-reach places up to about 50 miles away.\u201d The APT can also be used by companies like Amazon, FedEx and UPS.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bell is creating new products and services all the time! They constantly make new technology and equipment for helicopters and other vehicles. It is fair to say that they will create more pilotless flight and electric-powered vehicles in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While Nick is working on the commercial side of Bell, Shawn Smithe\u2019s story is a little bit different. After graduating from high school, he \u201cjust went straight to college.\u201d There he got his aerospace engineering degree and started working for Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he came to work for Bell. Shawn said, \u201cI currently work on the military programs as a fuels system engineer. I make sure that the fuel system on the Blackhawk helicopters work as it is supposed to.\u201d He also creates changes and upgrades to that system.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shawn likes working for Bell because they regularly \u201cpush the envelope\u201d a bit further than Lockheed Martin. They also have more chances for him to move up in his current job. While he was looking to leave Lockheed Martin, he found out that people like to stay with Bell more than at other companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shawn is excited about two of Bell\u2019s latest military projects, the Valor and the Invictus. \u201cBell is currently bidding to create a replacement for the Apache attack helicopters with a new aircraft called the Invictus. They are also looking at an upgrade for the Osprey, called the Valor.\u201d Both aircraft will create more jobs and make sure that Bell stays at the top of its game. They will be able to make new military vertical lift technology for the next several decades. Although he couldn\u2019t share details about these projects, he was able to offer these juicy nuggets of information about them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shawn states, \u201cMost of it is classified, but what I can tell you is that the Valor will have weapons capabilities, which the Osprey does not, and can hold more personnel. The Invictus has internal weapons, is a bit stealthier, has greater range and speed than its predecessor.\u201d They will give the military the capability to protect troops on the ground and get them to where they need to go faster and safer.<\/span><\/p>\n

All these new technologies that Bell is making will set them as the only vertical lift company for the U.S. military. They are going to make it easier for the military to do their jobs. Because of this, you can bet that Bell is worth the time and money that they spend on the vertical lift and technological development.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Interesting things are going on at Bell, formerly Bell Helicopter. They have changed from creating helicopters to the broader tech world. They have a few new products in the pipeline that could change the way that the world sees them.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Nick Pellas started working for Bell about 10 years ago after he left the Army. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8118,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions\/8118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}