Jessica Reed is a writer and editor with AIN. She joined the team in the fall of 2023 after two years covering the aviation industry at Avionics International. She earned her bachelor&#039;s degree in English (Writing &amp; Rhetoric) from Pepperdine University. Her hometown is St. Louis, Missouri, and she since has resided in Santa Barbara, California, and Brooklyn, New York, among others. She is currently based in Philadelphia.

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Bell delivered 36 commercial helicopters in the second quarter, up from 32 in the same period last year, as the rotorcraft manufacturer’s revenues climbed 6%, to $1.1 billion. Segment profit, however, slipped 6%, to $75 million, as parent Textron Inc. applied what CEO Lisa Atherton described as a conservative booking rate on the U.S. Army’s MV-75 Cheyenne tiltrotor program while awaiting a congressional decision on $350 million in redirected funding.
Second-quarter commercial deliveries comprised eighteen 505s, eleven 407s, four 429s, and three 412s. That compares with seventeen 505s, eight 407s, four 429s, and three 412s in second-quarter 2025. Military deliveries totaled a single V-22 Osprey, down from three V-22s a year earlier.
Through the first six months, Bell has handed over 56 commercial helicopters, down from 61 in the first half of last year, along with three V-22s delivered in the first half of 2026 versus five a year ago.
According to Textron, the $58 million revenue increase from second-quarter 2025 reflected higher military revenues of $47 million, plus an $11 million rise in commercial helicopter, parts, and services revenues attributed primarily to pricing. The $5 million decline in segment profit stemmed from program performance and the mix of military programs, partially offset by lower research and development costs. Bell’s backlog closed the quarter at $7.5 billion, up from $6.9 billion a year earlier.
<h3>MV-75 Funding</h3>
The Army is seeking the additional $350 million in government fiscal year 2026 funds for the MV-75 through an above-threshold reprogramming (ATR) request, which lets the service realign money already within its own budget, subject to congressional sign-off. Textron expects the process to conclude during the third quarter.
“Absent these funds, Textron has made the determination to move forward on a self-funded basis to support the program through the remainder of the government's fiscal year,” Atherton said during Tuesday’s earnings call. “We believe that it is in the best long-term interest and underscores our firm commitment to the U.S. Army and the MV-75 program to continue working during this period.”
Atherton cautioned that the timeline could slip. “Based on the congressional calendar, it’s my expectation this could stretch out until September before Congress gets to the point where they actually sign off on the realignment of those funds,” she said. Bell has placed modest spending caps on suppliers to hold the effort within the $350 million figure without losing supply-chain momentum.
Asked about the MV-75 funding situation and its financial implications, Atherton said Bell “actually performed very well in the quarter with revenue up 6%. It did impact their profitability because of the way we addressed this potential ATR. Going forward, we took a very conservative booking rate as we have not yet received that ATR. With that program adjustment, if we had not had that adjustment, Bell’s margins would have been very comfortably inside their guidance range for the quarter.”
On this topic, CFO David Rosenberg said, “It’s not a change in learning curve. It’s a conservative approach to the booking rate because the ATR hasn’t been awarded yet,” he said. “That was a Q2 impact; we’ll see how it plays out in Q3.” On the separate low-rate initial production award, Rosenberg said Textron’s outlook is unchanged, with the option expected to be exercised in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of next year, and an associated adjustment of $60 million to $110 million.
Bell completed the first two MV-75 wing structures during the quarter. “Building on decades of experience with the V-22, the first wing was fabricated with 90% fewer labor hours compared to the initial V-22 wing build,” Atherton said. “The second wing build was produced with an additional 40% reduction on that, highlighting the team’s focus on affordability and production readiness.”
Also in the military portfolio, Bell’s V-22 nacelle improvement program has cut maintenance hours by 75%, according to Atherton, improving readiness across the installed fleet.
On the commercial side, Bell recently rolled out its 700th Model 505 and booked an order for three additional 407s from Life Flight Network, which operates 35 Bell aircraft. Capital investments at Bell’s Drive System Center and Rotors facility began during the quarter, and an AI-enabled shop floor scheduling tool developed at the company’s Manufacturing Technology Center has completed testing and started rolling out across Bell’s fabrication centers.

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