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{{Short description|American experimental tiltrotor aircraft}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=April 2010}}
{{Lead too short|date=December 2023}}
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<!-- This article is a part of [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft]]. Please see [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft/page content]] for recommended layout, and guidelines. -->
{|{{Infobox aircraft begin
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|introduced=
|retired= 2003
|status= Prototype
|primary user= [[NASA]]
|more users=
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In the Bell design, Bell Model 301, the whole wingtip pod rotated between horizontal and vertical, with the engine and rotor assembly fixed together within the pod. This simplified the power transmission, but it had more complicated requirements for the engine design and was probably slightly heavier than the Boeing proposal.
After a review of both proposals, NASA selected the Bell 301 for further development, and a contract for further R&D was issued on 31 July 1973. Extensive engineering and testing took the next four years to complete the development of the aircraft. The first of two Bell XV-15s, tail number '''N702NA''', first flew on 3 May 1977. After minimal flight tests at the Bell test facility, the aircraft was moved to Ames Research Center in
For the [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]] Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program, Bell Helicopter and [[Boeing Rotorcraft Systems|Boeing Vertol]] teamed to submit a bid for an enlarged version of the XV-15 in 1983. The Bell Boeing team received a preliminary design contract that year, which led to the [[Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey]].<ref name="Norton_p22-33">Norton 2004, pp. 22–33.</ref>
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Following wind tunnel and flight testing by Bell, the aircraft was then moved to [[Dryden Flight Research Center|NASA Dryden]], which is at Edwards Air Force Base in the California High Desert. The XV-15 flight testing continued expanding its flight envelope. It was able to successfully operate in both helicopter and normal aircraft flight modes and smoothly transition between the two. Once the aircraft was considered sufficiently tested, it was returned to Ames Research Center for further testing.
The XV-15s were deemed sufficiently tested, and one aircraft was taken to the 1981 [[Paris Air Show]] for demonstration flights. The ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' praised its performance. "And if ever there was a lovable plane, it is the Bell XV-15... The machine, the hit of the show, performed a series of maneuvers including bowing to the crowd."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/14/business/the-paris-airshow-wining-dining-and-dealing-for-military-might.html?pagewanted=2|title = The Paris Airshow: Wining, Dining and Dealing for Military Might|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 14 June 1981|last1 = Anderson|first1 = Susan Heller}}</ref> Over the next year, Senator Barry Goldwater, Navy Secretary John Lehman, and other officials were offered guest co-piloting flights to promote tiltrotor technology for military development.<ref>R. Whittle, ''The Dream Machine''. pp. 95–100.</ref>
The XV-15s were a standard demonstration in the annual summer airshow at the co-located [[Moffett Federal Airfield|Moffett Field Naval Air Station]] for several years during the 1980s. Both XV-15s were flown actively throughout the 1980s testing aerodynamics and tiltrotor applications for civilian and military aircraft types that might follow.
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[[File:Bell XV-15 line drawing.png|right|350px]]
[[File:Bell XV-15 tilt rotor research aircraft.png|title=Cutaway drawing|right|350px]]
{{External media |topic=|width= |
|image1=[[Cutaway drawing]] of [http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/media/experimentalaircraftcutaways/images/8965/bell-xv-15-cutaway.jpg XV-15 ] }}
{{Aircraft specs
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|capacity=up to 9 passengers if seats fitted / {{cvt|3400|lb|0}} max. payload STOL
|length ft=
|length in=505
|length note=
|span ft=
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