Osprey finally arrives in a combat zone, after more repairs

[babylonsister]

Osprey finally arrives in a combat zone, after more repairs
By Jay Price | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Monday, October 8, 2007


BAGHDAD — The controversial V-22 Osprey has arrived in a combat zone for the first time.

It was an epic trip for the innovative tilt-rotor plane, one that took more than 25 years of development and cost 30 lives and $20 billion. Even the last short hop — from an aircraft carrier into Iraq — went awry, U.S. military officials said Monday.

A malfunction forced one of the 10 Ospreys that were deployed to land in Jordan on Thursday. The Marines flew parts to it from Iraq and repaired it. After it took off again Saturday, the problem recurred, and it had to turn back and land in Jordan a second time, said Maj. Jeff Pool, a U.S. military spokesman in western Iraq. It finally was repaired and arrived at al Asad Air Base in western Iraq late Sunday afternoon.

Maj. Eric Dent, an Osprey spokesman at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, declined to identify the problem. "The nature of the malfunction was a minor issue, but our aircrews are top-notch when it comes to safety," he wrote by e-mail. "Rather than continue, the aircrew opted to land at a pre-determined divert location and further investigate the issue."

Now the Osprey is on the world stage, and the burden of proving it's safe, reliable and effective in combat is on the North Carolina-based Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, nicknamed the Thunder Chickens. The unit's mission will be transporting troops and cargo in western Iraq.

It will perform that mission in ways that no other military transporters have ever done in combat. The Osprey — which costs $110 million each, including development costs — takes off and lands like a helicopter but tilts its engines forward to fly like an airplane.

Its arrival in Iraq is aviation history, said Bob Leder, a spokesman for the Bell-Boeing partnership that builds the Osprey.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20304.html

[TomInTib]

1. I have seen them fly.

Arlington, Texas, before so many crashed that the public outcry drove them out of town.

Any troops transported in Iraq will be landing on strips, anyway, because the downdraft from those huge propellers will start their own private dustorms.

Someone, somewhere, has had a hard-on about putting those deathtraps into a combat zone for a long time.

[babylonsister]

2. Yup, from what I've read, they're accidents waiting to happen. I

just wonder how many soldiers will be on board when that happens.

[razors edge]

3. I would strip down to my skiveys

and tell them to put me in the brig before I got on one of those things, I worked on Marine aviation hydraulic systems and this one is obviously not ready for prime time.

[provis99]

4. Thunder Chickens. What an apt name

Chickens don't fly, they just hop a little bit and come flopping back down to the earth.