V-22 Osprey Reaches 1,000-Hour Milestone
Story Number: NNS031204-18
Release Date: 12/5/2003 4:00:00 AM


By Ward Carroll, Naval Air Systems Command Public Affairs
PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) --

Dec. 2, the V-22 surpassed 1,000 flight hours
flown since the Osprey's return to flight in May 2002.

At approximately 1305 EST, Osprey No. 24 got the program past the mark during an icing test flight over Nova Scotia, where a V-22 integrated Test Team detachment is currently based for the first half of the icing portion
of the test plan.

"It's fitting that this milestone was reached by Osprey No. 24 on our crucial icing detachment in Canada," said Air Force Col. Craig Olson, V-22 Joint Program Manager. "We've accomplished what we'd intended at this point
since the return to flight, and that is truly a reflection of the teamwork between the program office and integrated test team."

"This milestone represents a year and a half of hard work, successful testing and mishap-free flying," said Kevin Morgan, V-22 Contractor Flight Test director. "We've accomplished a lot over the last 18 months. I couldn't be more proud of the folks at Pax, Edwards and New River, and our industry partners at the sites. A lot of people came together to make this milestone happen."

Since the V-22 program's return to flight, the Osprey has gone through exhaustive developmental testing, highlighted by two at-sea periods and a battery of high rate of descent tests that clearly defined the airplane's robust operating envelope and led to Tom Macdonald, the chief corporate test pilot, receiving the Society of Experimental Test Pilots' prestigious Iven C. Kincheloe award.

Additionally, the program received important shows of confidence from Department of Defense leadership during the two most recent defense acquisitions boards held at the Pentagon. In the coming months, the program will be focusing on other facets of developmental testing, as  well as supporting VMX-22, the tiltrotor test and evaluation squadron based at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., as it prepares for the Osprey's operational evaluation next year and eventual fleet introduction of the aircraft.

My God, it hasn't fallen out of the sky yet? Are these 1000 hours for real, or did someone do some creative logbook writing?

Your tax dollars at work. Imagine if the Corps took the money poured down that rat hole and used it to upgrade their existing rotary wing fleet.

Nah, that would make sense.

G

Don't knock the USMC for trying to look past their rotary wing fleet.  They've been pushing well inland since DSI and the range and speed of their helos won't do the job.  They need [i]something[/i] with the capabilities of the Osprey, and it might even [i]be[/i] the Osprey.

I'm not a fan of the current aircraft's flight record (or the project management), but a few members have made well-argued cases for the Osprey.

The osprey is an unecessary, overpriced, maintanence intensive piece of shit.

TXLEWIS

It's not bells fault.  The fault lies in gov't weenies telling the aircraft manufacturers what to make, not letting the aircraft engineers make good products.

This is how we came up with the sgt york pos.

The m113 had these problems too.

TXL

I was driving by Dulles Airport in Northern VA recently, and saw the XV-15 on a low level test flight.  This aircraft served as the precursor to the Osprey.  Awesome aircraft!

There were only two XV-15's made.

XV-15 N703NA retired to the new Udvar-Hazy Center in September of this year. It will be on display starting in the middle of December.

N702NA is in long term storage with Bell Aircraft.


XV-15 Tilt Rotor to Land at National Air and Space Museum's New Udvar-Hazy Center, Home of Smithsonian Institution's Peerless Vertical Flight Collection
 
The pioneering XV-15 tilt rotor becomes the first artifact to fly onto the grounds of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center when it arrives Tuesday, Sept. 16 as a donation from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Army. The museum’s new companion facility opens to the public Dec. 15 adjacent to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

The XV-15, which made its maiden flight in 1977, was the first successful example of an aircraft that can take off, land and hover like a helicopter with its rotors in the straight up position and tilt them perpendicular to the wing to fly like a conventional airplane at nearly two times the speed of a helicopter. The museum is acquiring the sole surviving XV-15 of the two built by Bell Helicopter and tested by NASA, the military services, the U.S. Coast Guard and Bell.

The aircraft will be displayed at the Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-var HAH-zee) Center as part of the Smithsonian Institution’s unparalleled vertical flight collection, which includes the oldest surviving helicopter (a 1924 Berliner), the first helicopter to enter production (Sikorsky XR-4), the first helicopter powered by a turbine engine (Kaman K-225) and the first helicopter to carry a president of the United States (Bell UH-13J, which carried President Eisenhower).

Museum Director Gen. J.R. “Jack” Dailey, who has test flown the XV-15 for the U.S. Marine Corps, says the aircraft “represents the kind of innovative milestone that makes our museum about more than just history. Visitors to the Udvar-Hazy Center may be seeing the XV-15 for the first time but its technology will become a familiar sight in years ahead.”

The center’s aviation hangar, 10 stories high and the length of three football fields, will ultimately house 200 aircraft. On opening day, some 80 will be in place at ground-level and suspended at two different levels.

Construction work continues on the center’s McDonnell Space Hangar, which will house America’s first space shuttle, Enterprise. The space hangar will be completed by opening day with the Enterprise installed and visible; however, the structure will not be accessible to the public until 2004 as Enterprise undergoes restoration. Sixty-five large space artifacts will be previewed in the aviation hangar beginning opening day.

Thousands of smaller objects from the museum’s collection will also be displayed throughout the Udvar-Hazy Center in customized cases, many adjacent to exhibit stations that will provide historical context through graphics and text.

The Udvar-Hazy Center is the ultimate home for the 80 percent of the national air and space collection not currently housed at the museum’s flagship building on the National Mall or on loan.

The XV-15 has been the most successful of NASA’s rotary wing research programs and its technology inspired the V-22 Osprey adapted by the Marine Corps as the primary means of the “vertical envelopment” concept in warfare. The world’s first civil tilt rotor is now under development and slated for delivery in 2007.

When the XV-15 performs the functions of a helicopter, it can do so with much greater range and at no reduction in payload. The aircraft is featured in the Air and Space Museum’s IMAX film “Straight Up! Helicopters in Action,” where it demonstrates a complete conversion from helicopter to airplane mode.

The National Air and Space Museum, comprised of the Udvar-Hazy Center and the museum’s flagship building on the National Mall, will be the largest air and space museum complex in the world. The Mall building is the most popular museum in the world, attracting more than 9 million visitors each year. Attendance at the Udvar-Hazy Center is projected at 3 million people a year.

[img]http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/images/09-16-03_002_200w.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/pressroom/images/09-16-03_001_200w.jpg[/img]

And they have already taken orders for 80 of the smaller AB609 tilt rotor, which basicly IS the XV-15. Mostly from companies that service the off-shore oil industry.

There is nothing wrong with the Osprey. Never was. The only think plagueing it was a tremendous cash expendature from Sikorski and Lockeed to spread propaganda among the ignorant, which includes most of both houses of Congress. The tilt rotors are going to take out a enormous bite from the medium and heavy helicopter market AND the market for C-130's. Brand new aircraft CRASH untill all the bugs are worked out-there was no way to know that hydraulic lines could work loose and start to chafe as the wings transfomed unless you fly them and go through lots of landing cycles. There is no way to find out that the FBW software was badly written untill it had to deal with switching from one hydraulic system to another in flight. And pilots need to have enough hours in a new type so they don't do something simple as fly the aircraft into the ground by landing too fast.

As a skydiver I have rule. Never buy anything "new" until it has been on the market for at least two years.
There are always bugs to work out.
Glad to see the Osprey alive and well.

Then they would have a more reliable force of aircraft still not capable of performing the OMFTS/STOM mission.  Only a tilt-rotor (or possibly a compound helicopter, but those have their own problems) has the performance characteristics of range and speed to fit the Marines' concept of operations.

The tilt rotor plann has been around for over 2 decades.

The Air Force started looking at it in the very early '80, maybe even the late '70.

The Osprey is a giant flaming POS.

The USMC would have been better off with the '47's, but stuck with the '46, hoping that some thing better would come along in the medium lift catagory.

The big deal with persuing the Osprey is to get the range & endurance of a fixed wing plane without it's space requirements, and without the weight limitations of thrust vectoring (ala Harrier/JSF)...

P.S.

How many Marines died in the opening of PGWII because of non-combad helo crashes? Quite a few, IIRC...

Call me ignorant, but I seem to remember reading somewhere that over 50% of the helos in the Marine Corps are down due to one mechanical failure or another. It's all well and good to work on a new idea, but when your existing fleet consists of the rotary wing equivalent of the Sopwith Camel, maybe an upgrade is in order.

Dave,

I wonder how many of those non combat crashes have to to with the age of the equipment. When you are running Cobra gunships that were made in the late 1960's, shit tends to break.

On another tangent. How well would the Osprey stand up to ground fire? All of the exposed hydraulics on the tilt joints, etc. Seems as if it would be easier to knock down.

G

'47 is not medium lift.  It is heavy lift and the USMC has a heavier lifter with better legs in the CH-53E.  Very few MH-47s that are ship capable - only specops versions although they could be built with rotor brakes and folding heads.  The Marines (and the Army for that matter) don't like to concentrate that many troops on a single lift platform.  That's why the USMC tries to stay away from H-53 troop lift missions unless their range is required.  From what I understand the Army tries to keep folks in Blackhawks for the same reason.  In Afghanistan, the Blackhawks were having trouble with the altitude and the more powerful and more efficient (tandem rotor) H-47 was required to do the job.

On the medium lift side, the only US medium lift helicopter in production is the H-60 Black/Sea/Knighthawk series which first flew in the late 70s.  The H-60 series has neither the range nor the internal capacity that the USMC is looking for.  Essentialy you get a bird (the 60) that has the range of a 46 (less if you have a bullfrog w/ bigger stubwing tanks) and carries fewer troops.  A 60 can't hold a full squad of Marines so to convert to 60s would require a wholesale change in doctrine and tactical organization.

The V-22 fits OMFTS/STOM like a glove.  Lots of airplanes have gotten bad raps in the testing phase and gone on to serve brilliantly.  Think B-29 here for one example.  The USMC will get the V-22 and hopefully it won't break them to do it.  USAF will also buy some for CSAR and maybe the Navy will get in for CSAR and VOD missions too.  Too late for me to get in on the fun though....[:(]

And the Air Force raves about their couple of CV-22's that have been delivered so far. Because of the problems on the Marines side it looks like it will actually be the Air Force who gets to deploy them operationaly. While they originally were acquired to replace the MH-53J's it looks like CSAR will NOT be their daily job. Rather their primary job will be insertions of Rangers and other SOCOM personal, because of the limitations of the Army's MH-47E

The Blackhawk is a very good battlefield helicopter. Unfortunately we almost never see its designed battlefield these days. It took just as long to deploy the 101st to Kuwait as it did the 3rd ID, in spite of a enormous difference in the weight of individual pieces of equipment. If the Army had kept with the Osprey program, the 101st could have a airlift fleet that could have FLOWN ITSELF to Kuwait. Instead of being dismantled and either flown by C-5 or shipped over on a RORO by the Navy, just as if they were tanks or Bradleys. The terrain in Iraq and Kuwait offer no advantage to the Blackhawk, and when it does try to fly NOE there it runs into RPG and MG ambushes.

1,000 hours on a simulator?

Blackhawk?


The Major across the street calls them     Lawndarts.

Well that is a bit extreme...

But is true that the Blackhawk was designed to operate only over short distances in Central Europe. It was not designed to transet hundreds of miles from the nearest available airfield just to reach its area of operations.

Then why do they keep falling out of the skay and killing Marines?

Grognard1, SJS....

  ill try and keep this from turning into a book but the MC cannot upgrade their existing rotary wing fleet. the current medium lift helo the CH-46 si plagued by airframe problems. most were built in the early 60s and have been through numerous service life extensions. Boeing Vertol has refused another service life extension for liabilty concerns saying that the CH-46 is unfit for operation. so the when the osprey starting turning into a cluster-foxtrot 10yrs ago the Corps examined its options. they looked at the blackhawk but sikorsky cant meet the Armys production demands let alone another service. the Navy is so short on folding blackhawks they have taken army models for units that are permanently ashore. the latest plan-B is a helo developed by a consortium of british and german firms that outwardly resembles a modernized Super-Puma. personally i think this is the best bet.

 my dad was an Army test pilot on the osprey program in the 80s. he told me if i was ever ordered to ride one should tell the CO to go fuck himself and gladly accept my punishment while my squad enjoys their fiery crash. i couldnt do that. but its a strong testament from an insider.

They haven't. And most of the helicopters the Marines and Army currently fly ARE WORSE.

Because the MARINES CHOSE to put a rifle squad in a prototype aircraft flown by a under-trained flight crew who then stuck it into the ground is not reason to not buy a aircraft..

If anything its indicative of extent the Marines are willing to go to to get this aircraft and its capabilities as soon as possible.

If you want to talk about aircraft who were real widowmakers, lets talk about the CH-47A when we were trying to deploy them to Vietnam- the rotor blades would fly off in flight because the hubs were defective and would fracture. It was well into 1968 before they would stop just "disappearing" and falling out of the sky- and about that long to get more than 75% of them available to fly at any one time.

Even today, now that they are getting OLD and we are working the piss out of them, go search up the number of Chinooks that have crashed without being shot down, and the number of men we have lost, since 9/11.

And then look at the number of Blackhawks crashed...

Cite your sources ya plagiarist [;)]

The Osprey is a piece of shit, I can't believe the Corps is still trying to make that deathtrap combat operational. I would have some serious reservations about putting my boots on the deck of that bird.

The Osprey will be a fine addition to the Corps.
Most people who speak ill of it, are just repeating what others have repeated, and they don't even know why...

The Marine Corps has very different requirements that the Army.
Over the horizon, from Amphibs...and then deep inland.
Not something a Blackhawk is suited for.

The Osprey is the future of the Marine Corps.

Compared to the Blackhawk, its a lifesaver.  First big problem with the Blackhawk was the stabilator programming full down due to RFI!!  The bird has enough comms on it to light a small house but if the analog computer got a wiff of the Tx, it would program full down.  Real bad when you are zipping the treetops at 150 Kts indicated.  Killed quite a few until they discovered the problem and hardened the computer from RFI.

Then blue blades.  They initially found birds which had turned into lawn darts.  It was only after a witness saw the blades turn blue that they modified the joint.  But only after several were killed.

Then external stores and CG problem.  This was still in the courts this year...[url]http://csmail.law.pace.edu/lawlib/legal/us-legal/judiciary/second-circuit/test3/00-9512.opn.html[/url] 5 killed and a 23 million dollar lawsuit against United Technologies and others.  Killed a Major General, two Colonels, a Major and a Specialist in the US Army.  

So when you claim the V22 is a deathtrap, please show us where it is any more dangerous than ANY of the other rotary wings used in defense.

In some ways the Osprey ought to be the future of the Army too.

I won't argue the fact that the Blackhawk has a role still on the short range battlefield.

But look at where we have been fighting lately.

The army really needs a couple brigades of Ospreys themselves, if they want to make full use of the Airborne and Air Assault Divisions.

The Ospreys are self deployable. They not only refuel in flight, they fly high and fast enough that regular KC-10 and KC-135 tankers can fuel them. They are not dependant on the smaller KC-130. They can fly themselves to any place we can drop parachutists too. It solves the problem we have had for the last fourty odd years of being able to fly paratroopers anywhere on the globe at a moments notice- only to have them not be able to pick them up again, or keep them supplied, or have them do anything at a rate faster than a walking man.

The Osprey can either follow them, or be pre positioned anywhere within 600 mi, and follow them in. They can bring supplies in, move wounded out, and evacuate or reinforce units in trouble over a wide front.

It took the Army and Air Force 96 hours to knock down ship and reassemble 24 AH-64's sent to Bagram as re-inforcments during Operation Anaconda.

In 36 hours a 108 aircraft Brigade of Ospreys could have flown themselves there, inculding time out for a 8-10 hour break in Poland or the Ukraine on the way there so as to not wear out the flight crew.

I'll also drop the CH-53E as one of those rotary winged Marine killers.
They had all sorts of problems with the tail shaft twisting itself into a pretzel.
12 Marines I went to Air Crew School in July of 86 were killed by a CH-53E crash out in the desert near 29 Stumps.
I can't remember how many were killed by the CH-53E before all of the "bugs" were worked out of it.