Shaffer
05-27-03, 08:03 AM
The Pentagon's outgoing chief weapons buyer gave the V-22 Osprey program a boost Friday when he recommended that the Pentagon consider speeding up purchase of the innovative aircraft.
Undersecretary of Defense E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, a vocal Osprey critic in the past, said flight tests have answered many of his technical concerns about the craft, which takes off like a helicopter and then tilts its rotors forward to fly like an airplane.
Aldridge had been most concerned about vortex ring state, an unstable aerodynamic condition in which a helicopter descends too rapidly at low forward speed, dropping into its own turbulence and falling. Vortex ring state was cited as the cause of an April 2000 crash in Arizona that killed 19 Marines.
The flight tests have identified the combinations of forward speed and descent rate that bring on vortex ring state, Aldridge said. A new warning system warns the pilot when the aircraft approaches those conditions.
"The signals warn, 'don't take me there,' " Aldridge said. "I believe we have demonstrated sufficient confidence in safety and reliability. There are still a lot of things to do. I don't see a showstopper.''
http://www.newsandobserver.com/osprey/v-print/story/2563112p-2379339c.html
Undersecretary of Defense E.C. "Pete" Aldridge, a vocal Osprey critic in the past, said flight tests have answered many of his technical concerns about the craft, which takes off like a helicopter and then tilts its rotors forward to fly like an airplane.
Aldridge had been most concerned about vortex ring state, an unstable aerodynamic condition in which a helicopter descends too rapidly at low forward speed, dropping into its own turbulence and falling. Vortex ring state was cited as the cause of an April 2000 crash in Arizona that killed 19 Marines.
The flight tests have identified the combinations of forward speed and descent rate that bring on vortex ring state, Aldridge said. A new warning system warns the pilot when the aircraft approaches those conditions.
"The signals warn, 'don't take me there,' " Aldridge said. "I believe we have demonstrated sufficient confidence in safety and reliability. There are still a lot of things to do. I don't see a showstopper.''
http://www.newsandobserver.com/osprey/v-print/story/2563112p-2379339c.html