Bell Textron Chooses Fort Worth for Major Expansion to Build V-280 Valor Military Aircraft

Bell Textron Inc., already one the largest employers in the Metroplex, has chosen its hometown of Fort Worth to build components for the next generation of military assault helicopters.

The news, announced Tuesday by Bell CEO Lisa Atherton and Gov. Greg Abbott at a Bell facility in northern Fort Worth, represents an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in North Texas. The company’s new facility in Alliance is expected to create more than 500 high-paying jobs after it opens in 2025.

“We are truly a Texas company,” Atherton said.

Bell considered at least two other locations in other states for its $632 million plant. It will produce parts for the company’s V-280 Valor to replace the Army’s fleet of UH-60 Black Hawks, developed in the 1970s by the Lockheed Martin company Sikorsky.

Bell won the coveted defense contract in 2022 for its design of the V-280, a tiltrotor aircraft that can take off or land vertically and fly at over 300 mph. The contract could be worth up to $70 billion over many years, depending on how many aircraft the Army and foreign governments purchase. Lockheed Martin and Boeing had competed during the Army’s years-long selection process.

The 34-acre site that Bell chose is at 15100 N. Beach St., off Interstate 35W across the Denton County line but within the Fort Worth city limits. The site was formerly home to a Stanley Black & Decker facility.

Brian Chase, vice president of international government affairs at Bell Flight, said selecting the facility was about a three-year process. He declined to name the other sites Bell considered.

Jobs at the new location will be a mix of support and traditional manufacturing roles, like engineering and operations positions. It’s unclear how many roles will require security clearance.

Bell is still designing the manufacturing flow of the facility, and does not yet have a timeline for when hiring could begin.

Chase said Tuesday’s announcement was likely the last major site selection for the FLRAA manufacturing. The aircraft will be assembled in Amarillo and testing will be done in Grand Prairie and Arlington. Chase said locals may see aircraft flying near the testing facilities in the coming years.

Bell was offered a sizeable economic incentives package from the state and local governments. The Fort Worth City Council approved over $47 million in incentives on Dec. 10. Bell applied for tax breaks from the state through Texas’ Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act program, or JETI.

Bell will need to invest at least $632 million into the Fort Worth site to receive incentives from the city. The company must also create a minimum of 520 full-time jobs with minimum average annual salaries of $85,000 at the site by the end of 2039.

Robert Allen, head of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership, said Bell’s decision reinforces the city’s status as an “aviation and defense leader.” The timing of the announcement is particularly welcome as Fort Worth’s other aviation giant, Lockheed Martin, has been thrust in the news by Elon Musk’s recent criticism of government spending on its F-35 program.

“Here in Fort Worth, we build defense projects that change the world,” Allen said, “and thanks to this project, we will be doing that for a very, very long time.”

Abbott was joined by Mayor Mattie Parker and other dignitaries for the announcement at the company’s Manufacturing Technology Center at I-35W and Loop 820.

“This is truly a Texas-sized investment in Fort Worth and in the future of our great state,” Abbott said.

What is Bell’s V-280 Valor?

Bell named its prototype the V-280 Valor, but its technical military name is the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, or FLRAA. Eventually, the aircraft could be named after a Native American tribe as the Army has traditionally done with helicopters, such as the Apache, Comanche and Black Hawk.

In November, Bell announced the FLRAA’s fuselage will be assembled at a site in Wichita, Kansas. Bell is building a $20 million facility in Grand Prairie, where the FLRAA will be tested.

Though it acts like a traditional helicopter during take off and landing, the FLRAA is designed to reconfigure itself in the air to fly faster than other helicopters.

Chase, the Bell Flight executive, said he doesn’t expect the changing political climate in Washington to affect Bell’s contract with the Army. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to see his administration cut costs across the federal government.

“I think there’s pretty broad support for FLRAA and transforming Army aviation,” Chase said. “You look at the world today, you look at the threats that are out there, I think there’s pretty wide understanding that the U.S. military has to modernize in order to meet those threats. FLRAA is part of that for the U.S. Army, so we’re pretty confident in that going forward.”

Bell Aircraft Corp. was founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1935 by industrialist Larry Bell. He moved his helicopter company to Fort Worth in 1951.

Four years after Bell’s death in 1956, Textron purchased the company. Hundreds of UH-1s Iroquois helicopters, nicknamed “Hueys,” were assembled at the Fort Worth plant and sent overseas during the Vietnam War.

Eventually, the original headquarters building was demolished to make way for a new four-story headquarters, which opened in 2014 in far east Fort Worth near Hurst.

Bell Textron was Tarrant County’s third largest industrial taxpayer in 2022.

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