헬리콥터 벨 MV-75(V-280 베일러), 샤이엔 II로 명명

[위종민]

When Computers Went To Sea | 벨 V-280 베일러, FLRAA 프로그램에서 승리 - Daum 카페

벨 V-280 베일러, FLRAA 프로그램에서 승리

When Computers Went To Sea | FLRAA 주요 임무들 중 하나는 부상자 후송 - Daum 카페

FLRAA 주요 임무들 중 하나는 부상자 후송

When Computers Went To Sea | MV-75 (V-280), 2026년 말 시험비행용 기체 인도 예정 - Daum 카페

MV-75 (V-280), 2026년 말 시험비행용 기체 인도 예정

FLRAA 프로그램의 승자인 벨 V-280 베일러 틸트로터기의 정식명칭이 MV-75 샤이엔 II로 정해졌습니다. 어째 좀 재수없는 이름이 아닐까 하는데요... ㅎㅎㅎ

미 육군, 벨 MV-75 틸트로터 명칭을 '샤이엔 II'로 확정

미 육군, 벨 MV-75 틸트로터 공식 명칭을 '샤이엔 II'로 지정
작성자: Clement Charpentreau
편집: Emma Yates-Badley
19시간 전
국방
벨(Bell)

미 육군이 차세대 틸트로터 항공기에 공식 명칭을 부여했습니다. 벨 텍스트론(Bell Textron)은 2026년 4월 15일, MV-75의 명칭이 '샤이엔 II(Cheyenne II)'로 결정되었다고 발표했습니다.

이 명칭은 미래 장거리 강습 헬기(FLRAA) 프로그램을 미 육군 회전익기 역사상 가장 야심 차면서도 교훈적이었던 장 중 하나와 연결시킵니다.

'샤이엔 II'라는 이름은 연방 정부가 승인한 두 개의 샤이엔 국가인 몬태나주의 북부 샤이엔 부족과 오클라호마주의 샤이엔 및 아라파호 부족의 유산을 기리는 것입니다. 이러한 선택은 아파치(Apache), 카이오와(Kiowa), 치누크(Chinook), 그리고 MV-75가 대체할 예정인 UH-60 블랙 호크(Black Hawk)처럼 헬리콥터에 미국 원주민 부족의 이름을 붙여온 미 육군의 오랜 관례를 따른 것입니다.

임무 디자인 시리즈(Mission Design Series) 자체는 2025년에 공개되었습니다. 'MV' 접두사는 다목적 수직 이착륙 기체를 의미하며, '75'는 미 육군의 창설 연도인 1775년을 기념합니다.

FLRAA 프로젝트 매니저인 제프리 포켓 대령은 이번 명명식에 대해 샤이엔 부족의 복무와 유산에 대한 헌사인 동시에 "AH-56 샤이엔의 대담한 비전"에 대한 직접적인 경의를 표하는 것이라고 설명하며, 'II'는 미 육군 항공의 새로운 세대를 알리는 신호라고 덧붙였습니다.


AH-56의 유령
미사일 테스트 중인 록히드 AH-56 샤이엔 (출처: 네덜란드 국가기록원)

원형인 록히드 AH-56 샤이엔은 1960년대 미 육군의 첨단 공중 화력 지원 시스템 요구 조건에 맞춰 개발된 복합 헬리콥터였습니다.

이 기체는 고정형 로터, 짧은 날개, 꼬리에 장착된 추진용 프로펠러를 특징으로 했으며, 당시의 어떤 양산형 회전익기보다 빠른 200노트 이상의 속도를 시연했습니다. 그러나 1969년 3월의 치명적인 추락 사고와 지속적인 로터 진동 문제, 유닛 가격 상승으로 인해 미 육군은 1969년 5월 양산 계약을 취소했고, 1972년 8월에는 프로그램 전체를 폐기했습니다. 이 기체가 맡으려 했던 공격 헬기 역할은 임시로 벨 AH-1 코브라가 수행했고, 나중에는 보잉 AH-64 아파치가 이어받았습니다.

AH-56은 미 육군 항공 역사에서 기술적 야망이 산업적 및 정치적 환경을 앞질렀던 프로그램으로 오랫동안 기억되어 왔습니다. 벨과 미 육군은 MV-75를 통해 과거의 약속을 실현하려 하고 있습니다. 즉, 기존 헬리콥터의 속도와 사거리 한계를 유의미하게 돌파하는 회전익 플랫폼을 선보이는 것입니다.

가속화되는 산업적 기반
벨 MV-75 샤이엔 II 틸트로터 (출처: 벨)

벨의 V-280 밸러(Valor) 시제기를 기반으로 한 MV-75는 약 300노트의 속도로 순항하도록 설계되었으며, 전투 반경은 UH-60의 약 두 배에 달합니다. 또한 최대 14명의 병사와 4명의 승무원을 태울 수 있습니다. 미 육군은 2022년 12월 시코르스키-보잉의 SB-1 디파이언트(Defiant) 복합 헬리콥터를 제치고 이 틸트로터를 선정했으며, 초기 개발비로 13억 달러를 배정했습니다. 광범위한 FLRAA 사업을 통해 향후 수십 년 동안 2,000대 이상의 블랙 호크를 대체할 것으로 예상되며, 잠재적인 생애 주기가치는 700억 달러를 상회할 것으로 보입니다. 첫 양산형 인도는 2030년경으로 목표하고 있습니다. 켄터키주 포트 캠벨의 제101공중강습사단이 첫 번째 작전 부대로 지정되었습니다.

벨의 수석 부사장 겸 FLRAA 프로그램 디렉터인 라이언 에힝거는 "첫 번째 테스트 항공기 인도를 위해 조립 및 생산을 가속화하고 있는 시점"에 이번 명명이 이루어졌다고 말했습니다.

롤스로이스는 2025년 12월 틸트로터에 동력을 공급할 AE 1107F 터보샤프트 엔진의 지상 테스트를 시작했습니다. 또한 콜린스 에어로스페이스(Collins Aerospace)는 2026년 4월 13일, 주 전력 발전, 상호 연결 드라이브 시스템, 스마트프로브(SmartProbe) 대기 데이터 시스템 등 5가지 온보드 시스템을 공급하는 계약을 체결했습니다.

US Army names Bell MV-75 tiltrotor Cheyenne II

US Army names Bell MV-75 tiltrotor Cheyenne II

US Army officially names Bell MV-75 tiltrotor Cheyenne II 

ByClement Charpentreau

Edited ByEmma Yates-Badley

19 hours ago

Defense

Bell

The US Army has formally assigned a common name to its next-generation tiltrotor: the MV-75 will be known as the Cheyenne II, Bell Textron announced on April 15, 2026.  

The designation ties the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program to one of the most ambitious, and most cautionary, chapters in US Army rotorcraft history. 

The Cheyenne II name honors the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, the two federally recognized Cheyenne nations. The choice is consistent with the US Army’s long-standing practice of naming helicopters after Native American tribes, a convention that produced the Apache, the Kiowa, the Chinook and the Black Hawk, the UH-60 fleet the MV-75 is designed to replace. 

The Mission Design Series itself was revealed in 2025. The “MV” prefix denotes a multi-mission vertical-lift airframe, while the “75” commemorates the US Army’s founding year, 1775. 

Colonel Jeffrey Poquette, FLRAA Project Manager, framed the naming as both a tribute to the Cheyenne tribes’ service and heritage, and a direct nod to “the bold vision of the AH-56 Cheyenne,” with the “II” meant to signal a new generation of US Army aviation. 

The ghost of the AH-56 

Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne undergoing missile testing (Credit: Nationaal Archief)

The original Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne was a compound helicopter developed in the 1960s against the US Army’s Advanced Aerial Fire Support System requirement.  

It featured a rigid rotor, stub wings and a tail-mounted pusher propeller, and demonstrated speeds above 200 knots, faster than any production rotorcraft of its era. A fatal crash in March 1969, persistent rotor-oscillation issues and rising unit costs led the US Army to cancel the production contract in May 1969, and the full program in August 1972. The attack-helicopter role it was meant to fill was taken up in the interim by the Bell AH-1 Cobra, and later by the Boeing AH-64 Apache. 

The AH-56 has long been remembered within US Army aviation as a program whose technical ambition outpaced its industrial and political environment. Bell and the US Army are positioning the MV-75 as the delivery on that earlier promise: a rotary-wing platform that meaningfully breaks the speed-and-range envelope of conventional helicopters. 

An accelerating industrial baseline 

Bell MV-75 Cheyenne II tiltrotor (Credit: Bell)

Based on Bell’s V-280 Valor demonstrator, the MV-75 is designed to cruise at around 300 knots with a combat radius roughly double that of the UH-60, carrying up to 14 troops and four crew. The US Army selected the tiltrotor over the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant compound helicopter in December 2022, with an initial $1.3 billion development award. The broader FLRAA effort is expected to replace more than 2,000 Black Hawks over the coming decades, with a potential lifetime value above $70 billion and a first production delivery targeted for around 2030. The 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, has been identified as the first operational unit. 

Ryan Ehinger, Bell’s Senior Vice President and FLRAA Program Director, said the naming comes “as we are accelerating assembly and production” toward delivery of the first test aircraft.  

Rolls-Royce began ground testing the AE 1107F turboshaft engines that will power the tiltrotor in December 2025, and Collins Aerospace was awarded contracts on April 13, 2026 to supply five onboard systems, including main power generation, the interconnect drive system and the SmartProbe air data system.