Original Date: 10/14/1988
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Transmission assembly at Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. (BHTI) is principally a manual process based on a planned sequence of operations. This process is used on cases complete with liners and miscellaneous hardware, subassemblies including quills and planetaries, complete gearbox assemblies, and mast assemblies. The V-22 prop rotor, tilt-axis and mid-wing gear boxes are tested, disassembled, inspected, reassembled, and leak tested. Special fixtures are used to assist the mechanics in positioning and holding the components during this entire process. Test facilities include 19 production cells used for all production and spare components, and 12 development cells for development and qualification testing of current aircraft and V-22 components. The production test consists of a two hour acceptance test to assure proper assembly and the proper operation of all parts, including the lubrication system. Special closed loop mechanical test stands are used to generate full power simulation. These test cells include programmable controllers and data acquisition systems.

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