Rotorcraft Update: Coast Guard goes for unmanned tiltrotor

The U.S. Coast Guard has selected Bell’s Eagle Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as its choice to fill the UAV role in the USCG’s overall hardware-improvement program, a plan aimed to make the agency more effective further from shore and, hence, known under the program title “Deepwater.” Bell’s HV-911 Eagle Eye is a full-function tiltrotor, much like its V-22 and XV-15 cousins. The 17.23 ft-long, 23.6 ft-wide (wingspan) robot tiltrotor can dash at 220 kt cruise or loiter at 90 kt in fixed-wing flight, or maneuver at far lower speeds as a helicopter. USCG plans call for use of the HV-911 as a wide-area surveillance platform in both offshore and homeland defense.