[Cicero]

Maybe Boeing and Textron should settle for the $7 billion they've already gotten from this program.

[Tacis]

Each of the V-22 aircraft being tested requires 122 mechanics to keep it viable and at least 12 clerical staff to make sure the records reflect the desired results. This is a terrible program and should be scrapped. The time and money being wasted could be put to much better use developing something that would work.

The diversity police have just forced Bell and the Pentagon to have the plate on the underside of each V-22 machine which says "LOOK OUT ABOVE, FALLING SCRAP METAL!!" also printed in six other languages to help save folks as these crash outside the US.

[Bobsat]

Amazingly well balanced article for the NYT.

As a former Army pilot (Vietnam - '68-'70), I'm still in the "inherently flawed" camp on the V-22. When they demonstrate that it can safely land with NO engine power, I'll reconsider....

[upchuck]

I wonder how many bucks Linda Dasshole has made off this boondogle?

Nice idea, the Osprey, maybe just a little ahead of it's time?

[Prof Engineer]

After two decades in development...

Time to quit flogging the dead horse already.

[dighton]

...

[Criminal Number 18F]

Once again, the NYT cites the extreme-left, anti-military Center for Defense Information, a onetime Soviet front, as an objective organisation. I call BS!

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[MaxPlus305]

If Dick Cheney was against it, it must be bad.

[Drago]

I tend to agree with this review: http://www.cato.org/pubs/fpbriefs/fpb72.pdf

[VOA]

bump

[thedilg]

The Article tells us that the unit cost of the V-22 is now $68.7 million. I thought I knew a little bit about military costing.

Unit program cost is total cost divided by the units to be procured. $60 billion divided by 458 airframes = $131/copy

Ignore $12 billion sunk in R&D The unit cost becomes (Note the word program is missing) The calculation now is
$48 billion divided by 458 airframes= $105 milliion/copy

Both of these numbers is a long way from the advertised $68.7 price tag. What have I missed?

Godspeed, The Dilg

[Jonx6]

I lost friends to aircraft mishaps. Never a child, or a spouse, just beer drinking friends of mine.

I always appreciated the sacrifices that the pioneers of flight and the pilots after them have made. They made great strides that others would expand on, and we all owe them a great thanks.

God bless the men and women who volunteer for these duties and missions, and God bless the families who brought up these people of such conviction.

It was an honor to work with these people then and I enjoy the honor of working with the very same caliber of people in the fire service.

I hope the work done in this Osprey program is not in vain, and I hope it yields much fruit.