Need Help With V 22 Osprey...

There's an older novel by Dale Brown called Hammerheads, which centers on a military narcotics interdiction unit that flies Ospreys. It's been years since I read it, but I remember that it went into a lot of detail on V-22 deployment and flight characteristics. Even had schematics, as I recall.

You might want to check it out. It was pretty good.

As far as I'm aware they're not much different than a helicopter in terms of flying one(e.g. the training involved isn't any more difficult from what I've heard), however in terms of mechanical complexity they are FAR more complicated then a helicopter.

This has led to some problems with the reliability and safety of the aircraft. I believe 20 some odd marines have already been killed in Osprey crashes, however these crashes occurred during the test phase of the aircraft.

The benefits the Osprey brings in its use are as follows.

1. It's a lot faster than a helicopter(cruises at like 300mph or so)
2. It's got a longer range than a helicopter
3. It's better at high altitude

The Drawbacks
1. Mechanical Reliability.
2. Expense
3. Lack of armament
4. Doesn't hover as well as a helicopter, has less lifting power
5. Worse in the desert (issues with the engines, probably falls into category one)

Not to mention that it is a real pig in high/hot conditions, like Iraq and Afghanistan. And it looked that way on paper, too...the Army closed its V-22 PMO in 1989 or 1990 for those reasons, as well as the fact that it would cost a buttload to support and sustain the aircraft. It's also not the best design for slingloading a pallet of M500 blivets into a FARP, which was the major deal breaker. Tough to believe the CH-47 could do the job better.

Dommo, it's better at high altitude in forward flight (airplane) mode, but when it transitions into mixed mode (where the angle of the attack on the nacelles/rotors is changed), then it behaves more like a helicopter, and becomes much more susceptible to things such as power settling, ring vortex, etc., etc.

The V-22 is easy to fly from the pilot's perspective because it has a fairly sophisticated AFCS in place. But when things go wrong and the aircraft's configuration is changed, either from damage or materiel failure, all bets are off. The aircraft's flight envelope is very, very small, and because of that the chances of departing from controlled flight are substantially higher than even in a CH-47, the original chariot of fire. (After the Ford Pinto, of course.)

um... what Noah said. Yeah, that's it.

Sorry...

I'm not a V-22 pilot, nor have I played one on TV or in any theater of operations. Hell, I haven't even slept in a Holiday Express ever since I got my Hyatt Gold Card and Hilton Honors began allowing double-dipping. I was also not part of the V-22 PMO, though I did know the 0-5 who ran it for about three seconds. The Osprey may pan out for the USMC and AFSOC, but it's far too expensive for what little it can do. With $42 billion, the USMC could have upgraded its entire AH-1/UH-1 fleet to...well, at least 1996 technology.

Just BTW-

From what I understand, the Osprey's safety and reliability issues have put it on the endangered list. It's due to be replaced in the Marine air arsenal with a version of the Joint Strike Fighter that has VTOL capability.

Or so I've heard, anyway.

Smiling Ted said:

Just BTW-

From what I understand, the Osprey's safety and reliability issues have put it on the endangered list. It's due to be replaced in the Marine air arsenal with a version of the Joint Strike Fighter that has VTOL capability.

Or so I've heard, anyway.

Click to expand...

That doesn't seem right - you might be thinking of the Harrier?

From what I remember, the Osprey was rushed into production due to a lot of political pressure from politicians whose districts it was being worked on it.
Engineers admitted it had problems.
Test pilots complained there were severe flight charachteristics problems.
Line pilots liked them but they were always coming up with repair and maintenance problems.
I don't think it was designed to replace the Harrier but one of the bigger double rotor choppers. The F22 and Joint Strike Fighter are most likely to replace the Harrier.
I think a Wiki search 'll give you loads and loads of info on it.

MattW said:

That doesn't seem right - you might be thinking of the Harrier?

Click to expand...

My bad. The Harrier.