Bell built two XV-3s in 1955. After testing ended in 1965, this
surviving XV-3 went on display at Fort Rucker, Alabama, and later
into storage. In 2004 the it was moved to the Bell Helicopter
Textron facility at Arlington, Texas, where a group of current
and retired Bell engineers restored the aircraft. It arrived at
the museum in 2007.
Bell XV-3
The Bell XV-3 was the world's first successful vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor aircraft. Its first complete conversion from takeoff to horizontal flight and back took place on 19 December 1958. The XV-3 paved the way for the now operational CV-22 Osprey.