page_title: Bell XV-3
section_title: Survivors
hierarchical_section_title: Bell XV-3 / Survivors
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo credit - Maria Trusty. Taken in the Presidential and Research &amp; Development Gallery on Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
context_page_description: The Bell XV-3 is an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies. The XV-3 featured an engine mounted in the fuselage with driveshafts transferring power to two-bladed rotor assemblies mounted on the wingtips. The wingtip rotor assemblies were mounted to tilt 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal, designed to allow the XV-3 to take off and land like a helicopter but fly at faster airspeeds, similar to a conventional fixed-wing aircraft.
  The XV-3 was first flown on 11 August 1955. Although it was limited in performance, the aircraft successfully demonstrated the tiltrotor concept, accomplishing 110 transitions from helicopter to airplane mode between December 1958 and July 1962. The XV-3 program ended when the remaining aircraft was severely damaged in a wind tunnel accident on 20 May 1966. The data and experience from the XV-3 program were key elements used to successfully develop the Bell XV-15, which later paved the way for the V-22 Osprey.
context_section_description: In late 1966, the sole remaining XV-3, serial number 54-148, was moved to outside storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. In 1984, the Bell XV-15 flight test team discovered the aircraft stored outside the Army's Aviation Museum during the XV-15 visit to Fort Rucker, Alabama, as part of a demonstration tour. 54-148 was repaired by December 1986, with Army support and the leadership of former Bell XV-3 engineer Claude Leibensberger, but the aircraft was disassembled and placed into indoor storage. On 22 January 2004, the XV-3 was delivered to Bell Plant 6 in Arlington, Texas. In 2005, Bell Helicopter employees began work to restore 54-148 to museum display condition, this time led by former XV-3 engineer Charles Davis. Following a two-year restoration, the XV-3 was transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It was placed on display in the Museum's Post-Cold War Gallery in June 2007, and as of 2011 is on display in the Research & Development Gallery.
caption: XV-3, 54-148, on display at the National Museum of the USAF (2012)
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