![]() Sources: Richard Whittle, author of The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey The redesign fixes frequent leaks and the flaws in flight control software.Ģ007 - The first V-22s are deployed to Iraq.Ģ010 - On a night raid in Afghanistan in April, an Air Force V-22 carrying Army Rangers hits the ground short of the landing zone, flips over and kills 4 of 22 people on board. Over the next few years, the Osprey is redesigned and retested. All Ospreys are grounded.Ģ001 - Two officers are found guilty in a records falsification scheme that was meant to make the aircraft seem more reliable than it really was.Ģ002 - The Osprey takes flight again. In December, another crash in North Carolina kills four Marines. Full-scale development begins five years later.ġ989 - The first of six Osprey prototypes takes flight.ġ992 - Three Marines and four civilians are killed when an Osprey crashes while landing at Quantico Marine Corps Air Station in Virginia.Ģ000 - In April, an Osprey crashes in Arizona, killing 19 Marines. Reserve units will follow if a new $8 billion contract for 122 more aircraft goes through.ġ981 - The Department of Defense green-lights the V-22 program. In recent years, more Marine squadrons have been moving to the Osprey, also known as the V-22. The milk run's many launches, banking turns and fast descents were enough to make one reporter - me - lose his lunch. It also feels different than a helicopter. "In this, we can look at a page that tells us when it's starting to deteriorate, and we can make a decision before it's an emergency," he said. Wilson McGraw, said you worried when a CH-46 wasn't leaking - that meant you'd run out of fluid. A ride in one of those meant hydraulic fluid was likely to leak all over your bags and clothes. Richard Whittle, author of a book on the OspreyĪfter the engines and propellers tilt forward, the Osprey flies like a plane, and faster than any helicopter, including the one it replaces, the ubiquitous Vietnam-era CH-46. The Osprey that is flying today is not the Osprey that was flying in the 1990s, which was a dangerous aircraft. The two big props wind up and we take off - straight up like a helicopter - but not for long. The pilots were getting ready for what they call a "milk run," a series of hops moving men, ammunition and supplies between bases. On the runway it looks like a stumpy prop plane, except the twin engines seem to be pointed the wrong way - straight up at the sky. ![]() I recently had the chance to fly on one in Afghanistan that was leaving from Camp Leatherneck, the Marine base in the southern part of the country. ![]() has spent billions of dollars and lost 30 lives creating a unique aircraft, the Osprey, which lifts off like a helicopter and flies like a plane.Īfter all these problems, the Marines are now using them widely in Afghanistan, and the Osprey is getting excellent reviews.īut the aircraft now faces another question: Because it's so expensive, should the Osprey program be slashed as the Pentagon looks for cuts? The aircraft suffered multiple problems when it was being developed, but is now getting praise from those flying it. Marine Osprey at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan. ![]()
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