thedrifter
02-11-07, 07:14 AM
History of crashes, design flaws leaves doubt over Osprey
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 11, 2007
Last updated: 11:32 PM
NORFOLK — What began more than 25 years ago as a wild idea – an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an airplane –— is supposed to go to war with the Marine Corps this summer.
But problems – including one that caused the entire V-22 Osprey fleet to be grounded Friday – continue a history of controversy.
Named for the graceful black-and-white fish hawk, whose Latin translation is “the bone-breaker,” the Osprey draws on a generation of invention, engineering, technology and daring. It has been developed to get troops from ships or land into combat faster and farther than helicopters.
The Osprey replaces slower helicopters more vulnerable to enemy fire: Five U.S. choppers have been downed in Iraq over the past three weeks, most of them apparently by ground fire.
The Osprey, however, has a legacy of fatal accidents and design problems: Thirty people have been killed since 1992 in Osprey accidents. Military officials maintain that the aircraft’s flaws have been corrected and that today’s models are nothing like the troubled ones.
Yet all 46 of the Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys and eight Air Force CV-22 Ospreys were grounded Friday when manufacturers found a faulty computer chip in the flight control computers of some aircraft, said James Darcy, a spokesman for the Osprey program at Patuxent River, Md.
The chip is in a circuit that lets three redundant flight control computers back up each other if one malfunctions, he said. Testing found that in extreme cold temperatures, the chip could fail.
Darcy said he hopes some aircraft can be returned to flight beginning next week, once the chips are replaced or modified. The latest problem shouldn’t affect plans for the Osprey to be deployed this summer, he said.
Awkward-looking with its twin, three-bladed propellers mounted on rotating wing tips, the Osprey is usually seen at its base in New River, N.C.
Test pilots are showing it to Norfolk-based Navy crews learning how to handle the Osprey when it flies to their ships.
A landing spot has been painted on a tarmac at Chambers Field at Norfolk Naval Station, where crews practice with the Osprey before it comes to their ships, said Marine Corps Maj. Scott Trail, a V-22 test pilot assigned to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, where the Osprey undergoes constant evaluation.
Soon, the Osprey will be working from the decks of just about any vessel with a landing pad.
“By next month we will have the capability to land on four classes,” said John Nelson, an engineer from Patuxent River’s V-22 test squadron.
Plans call for testing aboard large deck aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers later this year, he said.
The plane already can land aboard Norfolk-based Tarawa-class and Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, and the Lewis and Clark-class advanced auxiliary dry cargo ship, also based in Norfolk.
“There is usually a big crowd watching us come aboard,” said Trail, who has accumulated 200 flight hours in the Osprey. “It’s always very exciting and one of the things that drew me into this job.”
The tests aboard the ships are designed to see the aerodynamics of how wind over a ship’s deck affects a pilot’s ability to land the plane safely, Nelson said.
Three crashes – one in 1992 and two in 2000 – killed 30 people and nearly shut down the program. Two others, in 1991 and 2006, caused no fatalities but damaged the aircraft.
The Osprey was grounded for 11 months after the first fatal crash. The July 20, 1992, wreck killed three Marines and four civilians in Virginia. Leaking oil pooled in the bottom of one engine in level flight and a fire erupted when it transferred to hover flight, according to investigators.
After an April 8, 2000, crash in Arizona in which 19 Marines died, it was grounded for two months. That accident happened near Tucson during a night simulated rescue that required a high rate of descent and instrument approach. Investigations pointed to a lack of testing and a phenomenon called “vortex ring state,” where the rotors drastically lose thrust when descending.
Vortex ring state is not unique to the Osprey but is a condition all helicopters experience, Darcy said.
It has since been proved through extensive flight testing that the Osprey is significantly less vulnerable to vortex ring state than any of the helicopters it will replace, he said.
An audible and visual warning system has since been added to the cockpit, a safety feature no other military helicopter possesses.
After the deaths of four Marines on Dec. 11, 2000, in North Carolina, the aircraft was grounded another six months. Investigators said as it transitioned to hover mode, it experienced a dual hydraulic failure and a software problem that caused it to stall and crash.
That software and hydraulics were redesigned following that mishap.
The airplane either “will never emerge from the shadow of its reliability and accident rate, or it is going to be the revolutionary, transformational thing everyone said it would be,” said Ward Carroll, a retired Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot. He was the former official spokesman for the Osprey program in the Naval Air Systems Command.
Carroll, an author and current editor of *************, said there were “major missteps” and “systemic problems” early in developing the aircraft.
The Pentagon declared the Osprey “operationally suitable” in September 2005 and called for full production. Builders and operators say today’s versions of the Osprey contain the fixes the original production models lacked.
Not everybody is convinced.
A study in January by the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, called on Congress to end the Osprey program.
The center said the Marine Corps should instead pick from three existing helicopter programs to provide the Marines what they need for troop and equipment lift.
“Altogether, it is an aircraft waiting to increase its casualty list single-handedly if it is ever permitted to go to a combat theater,” wrote Lee Gaillard, author of the study “V-22 Osprey: Wonder Weapon, or Widow Maker?”
“Have we learned anything at all after 25 years, $18 billion, and 30 deaths?” he asked. “It seems not.”
The report was sharply criticized by Bob Leder, a spokesman for Bell-Boeing of Fort Worth, Texas, which makes the Osprey.
“This report is absolutely ridiculous, convoluted and basically a totally false series of allegations,” Leder said in a telephone interview.
“The allegations in that report may have applied to earlier model aircraft, but we have had several generations of V-22 produced since the data for this report was collected.”
The Osprey cost $68.7 million each in 2004, but company officials say the price tag will be trimmed to $58 million by 2010. The Marines want 360 of them to replace their aging fleet of CH-46 helicopters. The Air Force’s special operations command wants 50; the Navy is asking for 48.
The Navy will be the last to get the Osprey, beginning in 2017, Darcy said.
Ospreys have been tested aboard the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ships Bataan, Wasp and Nassau over the past several years.
Watching 10 Ospreys work from the deck of the Bataan recently, Nelson said flight operations looked almost routine.
“I don’t think we’re as much as an experimental aircraft anymore,” he said. “I think we consider ourselves operational. Deck crews and pilots are comfortable. We’re ready to deploy.”
More than 40 are currently at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., where the Raptors of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204 are teaching both Marine Corps and Air Force pilots to fly the tiltrotor aircraft.
The Air Force recently began training pilots at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., where four aircraft are stationed. Three others are at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing, Darcy said. The Air Force’s first combat squadron, the 8th Special Operations Squadron, now has its first aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The Marines have not said whether the aircraft will go to Iraq, Afghanistan or possibly the Horn of Africa, nor has it been announced whether they would leave aboard a Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship or fly directly overseas without a mother ship.
Either way, the deployment is seen as a watershed event that will make or break the Osprey’s reputation.
Reach Jack Dorsey at (757) 446-2284 or jack.dorsey@pilotonline.com.
http://media.hamptonroads.com/media/content/pilotonline/2007/02/osprey500x300.jpg
IT’S A CONVERTIPLANE
After years of development and several high-profile wrecks -- and a computer chip problem that grounded the entire fleet Friday -- the MV-22 Osprey appears to be ready for action.
Selected by the leathernecks to replace their aging CH-46 medium-lift helicopters, the MV-22 offers the versatility of a helicopter plus the speed and range of an executive turboprop.
It carries more gear and troops, is quieter, and is less vulnerable to small-arms fire than its helicopter predecessors, the manufacturers say. Pilots and crew members are enamored of its power and stability, and it can self-deploy from North America to Europe by carrying extra fuel in the cabin.
WHAT IS IT?
The MV-22 Osprey is a vertical take-off-and-landing troop/cargo transport, an air ambulance and a search- and-rescue helicopter.
Based on the Bell/NASA XV-15 tiltrotor research aircraft, the MV-22 began as an Army project in 1982 and was taken over by the Navy in 1983. Ospreys are built by Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Helicopters. Their Rolls-Royce engines are built in Indiana.
Three deadly wrecks between 1992 and 2000, with a total of 30 fatalities, nearly scuttled the Osprey program. Flight tests didn’t resume until 2002. Rerouted hydraulic lines and a new warning system were major improvements.
Ellie
By JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 11, 2007
Last updated: 11:32 PM
NORFOLK — What began more than 25 years ago as a wild idea – an aircraft that takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like an airplane –— is supposed to go to war with the Marine Corps this summer.
But problems – including one that caused the entire V-22 Osprey fleet to be grounded Friday – continue a history of controversy.
Named for the graceful black-and-white fish hawk, whose Latin translation is “the bone-breaker,” the Osprey draws on a generation of invention, engineering, technology and daring. It has been developed to get troops from ships or land into combat faster and farther than helicopters.
The Osprey replaces slower helicopters more vulnerable to enemy fire: Five U.S. choppers have been downed in Iraq over the past three weeks, most of them apparently by ground fire.
The Osprey, however, has a legacy of fatal accidents and design problems: Thirty people have been killed since 1992 in Osprey accidents. Military officials maintain that the aircraft’s flaws have been corrected and that today’s models are nothing like the troubled ones.
Yet all 46 of the Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys and eight Air Force CV-22 Ospreys were grounded Friday when manufacturers found a faulty computer chip in the flight control computers of some aircraft, said James Darcy, a spokesman for the Osprey program at Patuxent River, Md.
The chip is in a circuit that lets three redundant flight control computers back up each other if one malfunctions, he said. Testing found that in extreme cold temperatures, the chip could fail.
Darcy said he hopes some aircraft can be returned to flight beginning next week, once the chips are replaced or modified. The latest problem shouldn’t affect plans for the Osprey to be deployed this summer, he said.
Awkward-looking with its twin, three-bladed propellers mounted on rotating wing tips, the Osprey is usually seen at its base in New River, N.C.
Test pilots are showing it to Norfolk-based Navy crews learning how to handle the Osprey when it flies to their ships.
A landing spot has been painted on a tarmac at Chambers Field at Norfolk Naval Station, where crews practice with the Osprey before it comes to their ships, said Marine Corps Maj. Scott Trail, a V-22 test pilot assigned to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, where the Osprey undergoes constant evaluation.
Soon, the Osprey will be working from the decks of just about any vessel with a landing pad.
“By next month we will have the capability to land on four classes,” said John Nelson, an engineer from Patuxent River’s V-22 test squadron.
Plans call for testing aboard large deck aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers later this year, he said.
The plane already can land aboard Norfolk-based Tarawa-class and Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, and the Lewis and Clark-class advanced auxiliary dry cargo ship, also based in Norfolk.
“There is usually a big crowd watching us come aboard,” said Trail, who has accumulated 200 flight hours in the Osprey. “It’s always very exciting and one of the things that drew me into this job.”
The tests aboard the ships are designed to see the aerodynamics of how wind over a ship’s deck affects a pilot’s ability to land the plane safely, Nelson said.
Three crashes – one in 1992 and two in 2000 – killed 30 people and nearly shut down the program. Two others, in 1991 and 2006, caused no fatalities but damaged the aircraft.
The Osprey was grounded for 11 months after the first fatal crash. The July 20, 1992, wreck killed three Marines and four civilians in Virginia. Leaking oil pooled in the bottom of one engine in level flight and a fire erupted when it transferred to hover flight, according to investigators.
After an April 8, 2000, crash in Arizona in which 19 Marines died, it was grounded for two months. That accident happened near Tucson during a night simulated rescue that required a high rate of descent and instrument approach. Investigations pointed to a lack of testing and a phenomenon called “vortex ring state,” where the rotors drastically lose thrust when descending.
Vortex ring state is not unique to the Osprey but is a condition all helicopters experience, Darcy said.
It has since been proved through extensive flight testing that the Osprey is significantly less vulnerable to vortex ring state than any of the helicopters it will replace, he said.
An audible and visual warning system has since been added to the cockpit, a safety feature no other military helicopter possesses.
After the deaths of four Marines on Dec. 11, 2000, in North Carolina, the aircraft was grounded another six months. Investigators said as it transitioned to hover mode, it experienced a dual hydraulic failure and a software problem that caused it to stall and crash.
That software and hydraulics were redesigned following that mishap.
The airplane either “will never emerge from the shadow of its reliability and accident rate, or it is going to be the revolutionary, transformational thing everyone said it would be,” said Ward Carroll, a retired Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot. He was the former official spokesman for the Osprey program in the Naval Air Systems Command.
Carroll, an author and current editor of *************, said there were “major missteps” and “systemic problems” early in developing the aircraft.
The Pentagon declared the Osprey “operationally suitable” in September 2005 and called for full production. Builders and operators say today’s versions of the Osprey contain the fixes the original production models lacked.
Not everybody is convinced.
A study in January by the Center for Defense Information, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, called on Congress to end the Osprey program.
The center said the Marine Corps should instead pick from three existing helicopter programs to provide the Marines what they need for troop and equipment lift.
“Altogether, it is an aircraft waiting to increase its casualty list single-handedly if it is ever permitted to go to a combat theater,” wrote Lee Gaillard, author of the study “V-22 Osprey: Wonder Weapon, or Widow Maker?”
“Have we learned anything at all after 25 years, $18 billion, and 30 deaths?” he asked. “It seems not.”
The report was sharply criticized by Bob Leder, a spokesman for Bell-Boeing of Fort Worth, Texas, which makes the Osprey.
“This report is absolutely ridiculous, convoluted and basically a totally false series of allegations,” Leder said in a telephone interview.
“The allegations in that report may have applied to earlier model aircraft, but we have had several generations of V-22 produced since the data for this report was collected.”
The Osprey cost $68.7 million each in 2004, but company officials say the price tag will be trimmed to $58 million by 2010. The Marines want 360 of them to replace their aging fleet of CH-46 helicopters. The Air Force’s special operations command wants 50; the Navy is asking for 48.
The Navy will be the last to get the Osprey, beginning in 2017, Darcy said.
Ospreys have been tested aboard the Norfolk-based amphibious assault ships Bataan, Wasp and Nassau over the past several years.
Watching 10 Ospreys work from the deck of the Bataan recently, Nelson said flight operations looked almost routine.
“I don’t think we’re as much as an experimental aircraft anymore,” he said. “I think we consider ourselves operational. Deck crews and pilots are comfortable. We’re ready to deploy.”
More than 40 are currently at Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., where the Raptors of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Training Squadron 204 are teaching both Marine Corps and Air Force pilots to fly the tiltrotor aircraft.
The Air Force recently began training pilots at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., where four aircraft are stationed. Three others are at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing, Darcy said. The Air Force’s first combat squadron, the 8th Special Operations Squadron, now has its first aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Fla.
The Marines have not said whether the aircraft will go to Iraq, Afghanistan or possibly the Horn of Africa, nor has it been announced whether they would leave aboard a Norfolk-based amphibious assault ship or fly directly overseas without a mother ship.
Either way, the deployment is seen as a watershed event that will make or break the Osprey’s reputation.
Reach Jack Dorsey at (757) 446-2284 or jack.dorsey@pilotonline.com.
http://media.hamptonroads.com/media/content/pilotonline/2007/02/osprey500x300.jpg
IT’S A CONVERTIPLANE
After years of development and several high-profile wrecks -- and a computer chip problem that grounded the entire fleet Friday -- the MV-22 Osprey appears to be ready for action.
Selected by the leathernecks to replace their aging CH-46 medium-lift helicopters, the MV-22 offers the versatility of a helicopter plus the speed and range of an executive turboprop.
It carries more gear and troops, is quieter, and is less vulnerable to small-arms fire than its helicopter predecessors, the manufacturers say. Pilots and crew members are enamored of its power and stability, and it can self-deploy from North America to Europe by carrying extra fuel in the cabin.
WHAT IS IT?
The MV-22 Osprey is a vertical take-off-and-landing troop/cargo transport, an air ambulance and a search- and-rescue helicopter.
Based on the Bell/NASA XV-15 tiltrotor research aircraft, the MV-22 began as an Army project in 1982 and was taken over by the Navy in 1983. Ospreys are built by Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Helicopters. Their Rolls-Royce engines are built in Indiana.
Three deadly wrecks between 1992 and 2000, with a total of 30 fatalities, nearly scuttled the Osprey program. Flight tests didn’t resume until 2002. Rerouted hydraulic lines and a new warning system were major improvements.
Ellie