It was the second successful experimental tiltrotor aircraft and the first to demonstrate the concept's high speed performance relative to conventional helicopters.

In World War II, a German prototype called the Focke-Achgelis Fa 269 was developed starting in 1942, but it never flew.

The Model 1-G flew until a crash in Chesapeake Bay on 20 July 1955, destroying the prototype aircraft but not seriously injuring the pilot.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, NASA and other researchers worked extensively on theoretical and wind tunnel tests of various rotor pods.

After preliminary work, a competition was held to award two $0.5 million research and development contracts for prototype designs.

This simplified the power transmission, but it had more complicated requirements for the engine design and was probably slightly heavier than the Boeing proposal.

For the U.S. Department of Defense Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program, Bell Helicopter and Boeing Vertol teamed to submit a bid for an enlarged version of the XV-15 in 1983.

[2] Following wind tunnel and flight testing by Bell, the aircraft was then moved to NASA Dryden, which is at Edwards Air Force Base in the California High Desert.

"[3] 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.

[4] The XV-15s were a standard demonstration in the annual summer airshow at the co-located 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.

He was lifting off for a final hover when a bolt slipped out of the collective control system on one pylon, causing that rotor to go to full pitch.

While significantly damaged, the aircraft was largely structurally intact and both the pilot and copilot escaped with only minor injuries from the crash.