V-22 Flaws Called 'Lethal'

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V-22 Flaws Called 'Lethal'

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Hoping to re-energize congressional opposition to the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, critics of the controversial tilt-rotor aircraft released a study Thursday warning that the aircraft is plagued by inherent design flaws and will endanger U.S. lives when it goes into combat this year.

The study, commissioned by the Center for Defense Information, a Washington think tank, calls for Congress to scrap the V-22 and replace it with a lower-costing helicopter capable of performing similar missions, although it would be slower.

Co-manufactured by Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth and Boeing Helicopters of Ridley Park, Pa., the Osprey was near cancellation early in the decade after four crashes killed 30. Two crashes occurred in 2000, resulting in 23 deaths.

The program has rebounded after a redesign and more than 19,000 hours of flight tests.

It now has strong support in Congress as Marines move toward sending the first V-22 squadrons into combat -- possibly Iraq or Afghanistan -- by the summer.

But the center's study, "V-22: Wonder Weapon or Widow Maker?" warns that the hybrid aircraft still has "operational, aerodynamic and survivability challenges that will prove insurmountable, and lethal, in combat."

"We're trying to alert the system that the problems haven't gone away," said Winslow Wheeler, director of the center's Straus Military Reform Project, which monitors military and national-security issues.

The report prompted a scathing rebuttal from the V-22 manufacturing team and its defenders in the military, who contended that the study rehashed problems that have been corrected.

"It really baffles us as to why this organization would come out with an anti-V-22 diatribe when clearly the aircraft is performing well," Bell-Boeing spokesman Bob Leder said. "Apparently, they just used a lot of out-of-date information -- or disinformation."

Among other points, the study says the V-22 remains susceptible to a dangerous aerodynamic phenomenon known as a vortex ring state, which occurs when a rotor becomes enmeshed in its own downwash and loses lift.

V-22 pilots, under pressure to avoid enemy gunfire, run the risk of triggering a vortex ring by descending too fast under combat conditions, said Lee Gaillard, a Philadelphia science and military writer who authored the report. Rapid descent vertically or at low forward air speed "creates conditions ripe for VRS," the report said.

"If the Osprey goes into combat, it may cause its own casualties," Gaillard said in outlining the report at a Center for Defense Information briefing.

A vortex ring state was blamed for one of the crashes in 2000.

But James Darcy of the Navy's V-22 Joint Program Office said testing and review have proven that the V-22 is far less vulnerable to vortex rings than traditional helicopters and can easily speed through the turbulent air by tilting the engines forward.

The Marine Corps plans to buy 360 MV-22s to replace aging helicopters to speed troops and supplies into combat.

The Air Force plans to buy 50 CV-22s for special operations, and the Navy plans to buy 48 Ospreys for rescue operations.
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Post by Sandrat »

A good analogy:

Osprey equals Edsel
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Post by Spanky »

I can see the pilot now, singing...."Oh I wish I had a gun just like the A-10".
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Post by Sandrat »

A gun on the Osprey would easily tip it over the edge in being an aerodynamically unsound, mechanically challenged, $30,000,000 paperweight. Just retire the stupid thing to the field at Wright-Patterson's museum and bring back the Stinkbug!
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Post by coffeediver »

Lee Gaillard is nothing more than a ghoul that makes his money on scaring the sierra hotel india tango out of the easily duped. His articles against Airbus are legendary.
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Post by Spanky »

Yeah, it's real report...but I think it's a total joke. The R&D, plus production that has gone into this project warrants it's completion. It would be insnae to stop now. Of course, we have all seen crazier things happen.
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Post by Sandrat »

Can we say F-22?


Or how about JSF?
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Post by gt0163c »

Sandrat wrote:Can we say F-22?
Or how about JSF?
Yeah. I've worked on both programs.
What about them? Neither can do the job of the V-22 but both are needed by the US military (in my opinion and not just because I work for a military aviation company).
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Post by Sandrat »

That the R&D costs and such warrant production - that's all....
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