Marines Osprey Damaged in `hard Landing'

[Rose Siding]

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. -- The Marine Corps said Monday it was investigating an accident with an MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft that damaged its right wing and engine.

No one was injured, either on board the aircraft or on the ground at the air base at Jacksonville, the Corps said in a statement.

"The aircraft damage resulted from an inadvertent takeoff followed by a hard landing" during a test flight following maintenance on the Osprey, according to the statement from the Cherry Point public affairs office.
...
Earlier this year, the Corps said it would begin deploying the Osprey in combat zones within a year and activated a squadron of the aircraft, which are designed to replace Vietnam-era CH-46E twin rotor helicopters.
...
The aircraft program was halted for a review after crashes in 2000 that killed four Marines in North Carolina and 19 in Arizona. But the $19 billion program was restarted by the Pentagon last year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/27/AR2006032701997.html

[Rick Myers]

1. While I love the design... It doesn't WORK reliably!!!

This is a classic PORK project! NO on the Osprey!!!! Redesign it now and it will be a much better aircraft!

[IndianaGreen]

8. It is a death trap

I wouldn't fly on it, and I wouldn't have anyone else fly on it.

I fear it will kill more GIs than combat will.

[Redstone]

2. Those things are fucking deathtraps.

You can't violate that many laws of aerodynamics without paying a price.

Redstone

[Sal Minella]

11. With no training in the subject, it seems to me that the transition period

from vertical lift (copter) to lateral flight-lift would be totally unstable and the osprey would back-slip into gravity. Is this what happens? Seems like there's maybe a 45-degree angle of lift/pull there where neither lift nor pull would be enough to keep the thing in the air.

[TomInTib]

3. Wait until they try them out in the talcum-like dust and sand of Iraq

Somebody has a LOT riding on that deal.

Sen. Kay Hutchinson?

[Coastie for Truth]

6. Once upon a time - when airlines were flush with $$$

some of the airlines were looking at sinking big bucks into a commercial version of the Osprey to replace all of those 150 mile - 300 mile commuter turbo props. Nice idea. NASA Ames has lots of artist's renderings - but no aircraft.

:shrug:

<>

I think the thing they have to do is let Mitsubishi or Matsushita try to "do it right."

[Ezlivin]

21. Hutchinson has been on her knees before these guys for SO long

She is an absolute whore when it comes to worthless defense contracts. And she is most beloved by the Xian Right.

[buddysmellgood]

4. How many times have they tried to kill that thing. I love it. It's cool as

hell. But make one and fly it at EAA. Or build models. Just don't put our troops in it. It's fucked.

[madeline_con]

5. "... an inadvertent takeoff followed by a hard landing..."

:dunce:

[IndianaGreen]

10. What the hell does that mean?

Did the plane take off by itself? Where was the pilot?

[Up2Late]

14. Sounds to me like they mean, it hit so hard it bounced.

That's my guess, but I don't speak Pentagon-ese.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

18. translation: the damned thing is unstable, it began to lift and crashed.

[JohnyCanuck]

7. I'm just damn glad I don't have to ride in the widowmaker n/t

[darkmaestro019]

9. inadvertent takeoff? hard landing?

Accidental elevation increase followed by unscheduled encounter with planetary surface. Cute. How about, flew itself and then crashed? No, that would make people either :puke: or laugh until they :puke: anyway. Morons.

edit: typled garb.

[Rose Siding]

12. We need another study

A *really* expensive study. :rofl:

[PFunk]

13. This is starting to sound like the early days of the Harrier...

...It to was a problem laden aircraft at first but eventually they made it work. And it turned out to be one of the worlds best attack/fighters. I see the Osprey undergoing the same path. It's going thru some major pains. But the designs sound and it will be worth it once those pains are worked out.

Still I wish they handed it over to someone else to work out those bugs.

[karlrschneider]

19. I don't consider it a "sound design" at all. Not even a sound

CONCEPT - I've flown hundreds of types of aircraft but that's one I wouldn't even set foot in. No how no way.

[liam_laddie]

22. Harrier engine life?

I've read that the heat stress and such are such that the engine
(always a Rolls-Royce?) needs to be changed every 20-30 hours
of flight time. If true, extremely high $$ per hour...
The Osprey grew so heavy that they couldn't fit even one .50cal.
suppression weapon. Not good when landing infantry. And yeah,
airborne grit will raise hell with the rotor leading edges, reducing
lift capacity further. Don't know its most recent specs, though.
Osprey is a wet dream for the military-industrial-congress complex.
So is the Stryker. Thanks, Pentagon, from another empty-pockets
taxpayer.

[HereSince1628]

15. What would inadvertantly change the lift on those things?

I dunno anyone know how those things work?

Change in rotor pitch?

Increase in rpms at constant rotor pitch?

Gust of wind over the wing?

[SoCalDem]

16. Ospreys have been killing military people for YEARS, and they keep

on making them.. I WAS happy to see that Rumsfeld was using one , however.. Hope springs eternal

[0007]

17. Damaged right wing and engine!!!!!!

The media is right on top of this one. Fuck the troops in Iraq, this is late breaking nooz.

[catnhatnh]

20. The (Marine) corp will begin deployement within a year....

...because they are running out of helicopters!I recently read an article that stated that even while viable choppers are undergoing airframe overhauls and retrofits at boneyards in the southwest,the program can not keep up with attrition....So the real news is the Osprey will be deployed in spite of flaws because we are running out of real helicopters!

[yellowcanine]

23. Hmm. If I rear end someone can I tell my insurance company it was a

"hard landing"? Maybe my rates won't go up like they would for an accident?