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60 F or more than 80 years, Bell has been a leading developer of VTOL aircraft, especially new helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft. At the AUVSI Xponential event in Chicago last year, we met with members of its Innovation team to learn about two of their new design concepts – an urban air taxi with a distributed-lift powertrain, and a new kind of delivery UAV, the Autonomous Pod Transport (APT). While much in the urban air taxi sector still needs time and development before it can engage with tangible (and disclosable) engineering details, the APT has raced ahead in terms of technological readiness, with the company’s technicians having committed considerable time and energy into maturing different versions of these tail-sitting, VTOL-transitioning, biplane-like UAVs. “When the Innovation team was first started, there were a lot of novel ideas we could have pursued, but unmanned logistics resonated the most,” says John Wittmaak, Bell’s programme manager for small and medium-sized unmanned aerial systems. “The most significant motivators were memories of hurricanes Harvey and Katrina, and how they resulted in large populations of civilians being cut off from water, food, medicines and other life- saving supplies for long periods of time. “The military has similar needs – after all, soldiers on the front line need life- Rory Jackson talks to the head of the team behind this VTOL-transitioning tail-sitter, which is designed to deliver life-saving supplies Manna from the heavens October/November 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology Bell’s APT tiltrotor is designed for last-mile and emergency deliveries (Images courtesy of Bell)