greybeard
02-29-04, 10:12 AM
Wonder why you never see any of this in the official MC press releases? $100 million is now the per ac price tag. In 1995 a CH53E cost $40 million new, according to HQMC CH53E Fact File.
(I corrected this-the $26 milion was for the 53D)
http://www.marineofficercandidate.com/super_sea_stallion_platform.htm
You also have to add the cost of engine upgrades to the ch-46 to this problem child, since the Osprey was supposed to have already replaced the Phrog. All USMC CH-46's have or soon will have new engines, to extend their life due to failures in the Osprey. Looks like a no-brainer to me. $15 billion spent and it has yet to carry a single Marine into combat, and it certainly won't before 2006. In an effort to make up for this loss of lift/transport capability the Marine Corps is also planning an up grade to the CH53E, designated the CH-53X program. Cost per aircraft?-$25 million. Congress is watching.
Posted on Tue, Feb. 24, 2004
2003 test revealed new V-22 problem
By Bob Cox
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
New problems have been discovered with the computer flight controls of the V-22 Osprey, Bell Helicopter confirmed Monday, that could delay operational testing of the tilt-rotor aircraft
Bell engineers are trying to determine why the computer system ignored a test pilot's commands and caused the craft to rapidly yaw from side to side.
The problem became known when a pilot attempted to land a V-22 aboard a Navy amphibious ship in late November, according to a source involved in the V-22 program who asked not to be identified.
The craft moved rapidly from side to side when the computer controls tried to counter the pilot's commands, alternately increasing and decreasing power to the aircraft's twin rotors, Bell confirmed. The oscillations did not stop until the pilot released the controls, allowing the computer to take over the aircraft.
Bell spokesman Bob Leder said Monday that although the company's investigation "is not yet completed, the investigation reveals further refinements to the flight control software and hardware are necessary."
The new problems became public as the Pentagon officially awarded Bell and its V-22 partner, Boeing, an $849.3 million contract for production of 11 more aircraft, eight for the Marines and three for the Air Force, for fiscal year 2004. The funding had been previously approved. The completed aircraft will cost more than $100 million each.
Bell, in consultation with Navy and Air Force officers overseeing the V-22 program, has placed limits on the way the V-22 can be maneuvered in certain situations "until the flight control hardware and software refinements are incorporated," Leder said.
Bill Lawrence, a former Marine test pilot and V-22 program official who lives in Aledo, said he had never heard of a problem like this affecting other aircraft and that it could indicate other unknowns.
"The fact they were clueless about this is a scary thing," Lawrence said.
Officials have attributed one fatal V-22 crash to bugs in the computer software that runs the Osprey's flight control system.
Four Marines, including the most experienced V-22 pilot, died in the December 2000 accident in North Carolina. An investigation concluded that faulty software thwarted the flight crew's attempts to control the aircraft after a hydraulic line burst, causing the aircraft to plummet to the ground.
Bell and Boeing spent about a year after that crash rewriting and testing the flight control software.
The new flight restrictions raise questions about whether tests that would simulate military operations can proceed soon, as scheduled.
Officials with the V-22 program office and the Marines did not return telephone calls Monday. The flight control problem became known Monday in a report in a trade publication, Inside the Navy.
Leder, Bell's spokesman, said the flight control issues "could affect the timing of the operational tests, but the program office believes it will have no effect" on future test schedules, including the formal operational evaluation scheduled for early in 2005.
"It's important to remember this situation is consistent with the general nature of developmental flight tests," Leder said. "You find problems, you isolate them, you fix them and you move on."
Given the announcement Monday that the Pentagon plans to cancel the Army's long-delayed Comanche helicopter program, one analyst said the last thing the V-22 program needs is a new set of problems, more delays and further cost increases.
"This is a bad time to make yourself a target for the budget cutters," said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va.
The V-22 is probably not in imminent danger, Aboulafia said, because the Marines remain solidly behind the program and are more skillful at lobbying Congress and Department of Defense officials than their Army counterparts.
Still, he added, "Just when it seemed like the V-22 was on the mend, you don't need to have questions about it come up."
Bell and Boeing have been developing the V-22 since 1982. The program has been plagued by developmental problems and delays, as well as four fatal crashes, and has cost about $15 billion.
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(I corrected this-the $26 milion was for the 53D)
http://www.marineofficercandidate.com/super_sea_stallion_platform.htm
You also have to add the cost of engine upgrades to the ch-46 to this problem child, since the Osprey was supposed to have already replaced the Phrog. All USMC CH-46's have or soon will have new engines, to extend their life due to failures in the Osprey. Looks like a no-brainer to me. $15 billion spent and it has yet to carry a single Marine into combat, and it certainly won't before 2006. In an effort to make up for this loss of lift/transport capability the Marine Corps is also planning an up grade to the CH53E, designated the CH-53X program. Cost per aircraft?-$25 million. Congress is watching.
Posted on Tue, Feb. 24, 2004
2003 test revealed new V-22 problem
By Bob Cox
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
New problems have been discovered with the computer flight controls of the V-22 Osprey, Bell Helicopter confirmed Monday, that could delay operational testing of the tilt-rotor aircraft
Bell engineers are trying to determine why the computer system ignored a test pilot's commands and caused the craft to rapidly yaw from side to side.
The problem became known when a pilot attempted to land a V-22 aboard a Navy amphibious ship in late November, according to a source involved in the V-22 program who asked not to be identified.
The craft moved rapidly from side to side when the computer controls tried to counter the pilot's commands, alternately increasing and decreasing power to the aircraft's twin rotors, Bell confirmed. The oscillations did not stop until the pilot released the controls, allowing the computer to take over the aircraft.
Bell spokesman Bob Leder said Monday that although the company's investigation "is not yet completed, the investigation reveals further refinements to the flight control software and hardware are necessary."
The new problems became public as the Pentagon officially awarded Bell and its V-22 partner, Boeing, an $849.3 million contract for production of 11 more aircraft, eight for the Marines and three for the Air Force, for fiscal year 2004. The funding had been previously approved. The completed aircraft will cost more than $100 million each.
Bell, in consultation with Navy and Air Force officers overseeing the V-22 program, has placed limits on the way the V-22 can be maneuvered in certain situations "until the flight control hardware and software refinements are incorporated," Leder said.
Bill Lawrence, a former Marine test pilot and V-22 program official who lives in Aledo, said he had never heard of a problem like this affecting other aircraft and that it could indicate other unknowns.
"The fact they were clueless about this is a scary thing," Lawrence said.
Officials have attributed one fatal V-22 crash to bugs in the computer software that runs the Osprey's flight control system.
Four Marines, including the most experienced V-22 pilot, died in the December 2000 accident in North Carolina. An investigation concluded that faulty software thwarted the flight crew's attempts to control the aircraft after a hydraulic line burst, causing the aircraft to plummet to the ground.
Bell and Boeing spent about a year after that crash rewriting and testing the flight control software.
The new flight restrictions raise questions about whether tests that would simulate military operations can proceed soon, as scheduled.
Officials with the V-22 program office and the Marines did not return telephone calls Monday. The flight control problem became known Monday in a report in a trade publication, Inside the Navy.
Leder, Bell's spokesman, said the flight control issues "could affect the timing of the operational tests, but the program office believes it will have no effect" on future test schedules, including the formal operational evaluation scheduled for early in 2005.
"It's important to remember this situation is consistent with the general nature of developmental flight tests," Leder said. "You find problems, you isolate them, you fix them and you move on."
Given the announcement Monday that the Pentagon plans to cancel the Army's long-delayed Comanche helicopter program, one analyst said the last thing the V-22 program needs is a new set of problems, more delays and further cost increases.
"This is a bad time to make yourself a target for the budget cutters," said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va.
The V-22 is probably not in imminent danger, Aboulafia said, because the Marines remain solidly behind the program and are more skillful at lobbying Congress and Department of Defense officials than their Army counterparts.
Still, he added, "Just when it seemed like the V-22 was on the mend, you don't need to have questions about it come up."
Bell and Boeing have been developing the V-22 since 1982. The program has been plagued by developmental problems and delays, as well as four fatal crashes, and has cost about $15 billion.
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