Ryan Ehinger joined Bell in 2004 and serves on Bell’s Executive Leadership Team as the Senior Vice President and Program Director for Bell’s V-280 Valor - the US Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft. The V-280 Valor is the winner of the 2018 Aviation Week Defense Technology Laureate Award, 2019 Vertical Flight Society Grover E. Bell award, Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New”, and a two-time Collier trophy finalist.

Prior to taking his current position, Ryan supported the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft proposal effort and had been a member of the V-280 Valor Joint Multi-Role Tech Demonstrator team through their Proposal, PDR, CDR, First Flight, and years of successful flight test in successive IPT Manager, Chief Engineer, Program Manager, and Vice President roles.

Before joining the V-280 team in 2013 he served as the Program and Technology Manager for the Army/Bell Future Advanced Rotorcraft Drive System program. He also served as industry lead for the National Rotorcraft Technology Center – Vertical Lift Consortium drive systems technology area.

As a member of the Vertical Flight Society, Ryan was Chairman of the 2012 and 2013 Propulsion Technical Committee and has authored/co-authored 16 technical papers. He was awarded the society’s François-Xavier Bagnoud award in 2008 for contributions to the rotorcraft industry by a member under the age of 35.

Ryan earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Southern Methodist University.

Ryan has been awarded more than twenty patents and is a member of the Army Aviation Association of America.