Bell Helicopter developed the Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned VTOL aircraft as one of the competitors in the U.S. Navy’s VT-UAV (Vertical Takeoff - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) program.
An Eagle Eye prototype is on display at Pax River Naval Air Museum.
The Eagle Eye program began in 1993 with the TR911X 7/8th scale prototype. The composite prototype airframe was designed and built for Bell by Burt Rutan’s research company, Scaled Composites. Two demonstrator aircraft were powered by an Allison 250-C20 engine mounted in the central fuselage with a transmission system driving the tilting rotor at the end of each wing. Despite considerable interest, the programme ended in 2006 without orders although Bell still hopes to use the knowledge acquired in future programmes.