The next phase of Bell’s X-planes is on the horizon. The aviation company has just completed the Critical Design Review for the U.S.’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), underneath its Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) Program. That means the Texas-based firm can start building out its next-gen demonstrator of the X-plane, which has been named X-76 in an homage to America’s 250th anniversary. The brand-new military craft is designed to be a VTOL machine that can dart through the skies at jet-like speeds of 400 to 450 knots and hover from unprepared surfaces—at least, that’s the goal. The new X-plane would ideally also “[eliminate] one of the battlefield’s most difficult choices—between the high speed of an aircraft that needs a runway and the go-anywhere flexibility of a slower helicopter,” DARPA said, according to TWZ. All that is based on Bell’s Stop/Fold rotor system, which offers up proprotors on the tips of the wings..
