Posted on 03/25/2008 3:33:19 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
This article first appeared in AviationWeek.com.
The lack of a viable long-term sustainment solution for the V-22's Rolls-Royce engines may drive the U.S. Marine Corps to look for entirely new engines in a few years.
"We need to move on, with or without Rolls-Royce," Marine Corps Col. Matt Mulhern, V-22 program manager, told reporters at the Naval Sea-Air-Space Expo Tuesday.
Over the next two years, the Marine Corps will work on developing a new strategy to solve issues that have arisen with V-22 engine maintenance in Iraq. "We're casting a wide net to see what's available. [The solution] could be status quo all the way up to needing to find a new motor," Mulhern said.
When Rolls-Royce proposed a maintenance strategy back in 1998, it was a "power-by-the-hour" solution, Mulhern said, which has turned out to be insufficient.
"That business case analysis predicted the engine components would last so many thousands of hours," he said. "I'm not sure the government ever agreed with Rolls-Royce, but we thought it was a good business case. Now, as we actually operate the aircraft, the engines aren't lasting as long as we [or the government] would like."
Rolls-Royce cannot support the current strategy, Mulhern said. They are unable to recoup the cost of engine maintenance under the power-by-the-hour plan. "We'll have to move to more traditional engine support," he said.
The engines are not lasting long in service because of erosion in the compressor blades, which reduces engine efficiency and forces the engine to run at higher temperatures to reach the same power. Another concern is that the existing engine does not have enough margin to handle expected weight growth.
The only turbine engine available in the same power class as the AE 3007 is the General Electric GE38-1B, selected last year as the powerplant for the Sikorsky CH-53K helicopter. Mulhern says that the Navy has not reached the point of estimating the cost of a re-engining program.
Wow - that picture drives home the fact a belly landing with the rotors in full-forward configuration would be one you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near - insid or outside the plane.
WOW! What a pic. I’d love to be around one of those Osprey’s while doing max performance arrivals/departures.
The military way! Throw more money at the turkey!
While a neat concept, the billions of dollars we have thrown at this boondoggle has been a waste. I doubt it will ever operate up to specs.
Actually, the rotors are made of carbon fiber and they simply powder upon impact. No parts will enter the cabin or get flung an appreciable distance away.
Strangely enough, it IS working to specs.
You do realize that it is operationally deployed to Iraq, has been for 6 months, and they’ve not had a crash yet.
The Marine Corps and the Air Force pay a fixed amount per flight hour, and it is Rolls Royce's problem to make sure the engines are working.
Rolls doesn't want to renew the contracts when they expire, because the engine is not lasting as long as expected, so they're losing money on the deal.
If Rolls doesn't wish to either renew the maintenance contracts or redesign the compressor stages that are wearing out prematurely, then it is prudent to find another engine source. The alternative is for the operators to take on all maintance costs themselves.
Pratt and Whitney Canada is pretty good at making gas turbines...
That picture made me mentally calculate where the bottom of the rotor arc was in relation to the ground...
Having seen broken carbon fiber sailboat masts, they didn't "powder". They come apart into steel hard strings and strands of fiber. A few thousand of those whipping around as things come apart could be......dangerous.
Good to know there won't be any big chunks though!
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