Ducommun awarded contracts from Bell Helicopter for V-22 Osprey

Ducommun Incorporated (today reported that it has received contracts valued at $5.6 million from Bell Helicopter, a subsidiary of Textron, Inc., to provide electronic assemblies and wiring harnesses for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor military aircraft through January 2015. The Company will manufacture the electronic subassemblies at its Huntsville, Ark., plant and the wiring harnesses at its Joplin, Mo., facility. Ducommun has supported the V-22 program since 2005.

“We are certainly pleased to see our relationship with Bell continue to strengthen and grow through the V-22 program,” said Anthony J. Reardon, chairman and chief executive officer. “This latest award expands our support of the program with a new electronic subassembly — which we will manufacture with the same commitment to product integrity for our customer and, most importantly, for the V-22 fighter pilots and combat troops.”

The Bell Boeing V-22 is produced under a strategic alliance between Bell Helicopter and the Boeing Company (NYSE: BA). The V-22 Osprey is a joint service, multirole combat aircraft that uses tiltrotor technology to combine the speed and range of a fixed-wing airplane with the vertical performance of a helicopter. With its nacelles and rotors in vertical position, it can take off, land, and hover like a helicopter. Once airborne, its nacelles can be rotated to transform the aircraft into a turboprop airplane capable of high-speed, high-altitude flight.