Posted on 05/18/2015 7:56:56 PM PDT by Rabin
One Marine was killed and 21 others were hospitalized Sunday after an Osprey... had a "hard-landing mishap" at approximately 11:40 a.m. local time.
Built by Boeing Co. and Bell, a unit of Textron Inc., the Osprey program was nearly scrapped after a history of mechanical failures and two test crashes that killed 23 Marines in 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Quad rotor VTOL.”
No, it only has two “rotors” which translate from vertical to horizontal out on the ends of a couple of stubby wings.
I want to know what a “test crash” is!
I know. mine was a suggsstion for quad vtol minijets.
We lost a lot of our people during that phase in 1968 - almost lost me. I was off duty for the evening while I was with HMMT-302 in Tustin California and a fellow Marine came into the Ready Room and asked I could take his Crew Chief duty for night training. I couldn't because I had promised my fiancée that I would be in Burbank that evening.
During that flight, the rear end came off that '46 at 5,000 feet above Black Star Mountain and that crew chief was thrown out of the plane. It took a while to find his body.
We lost 11 dead in two months of training until they finally reinforced the 410 joint.
One student pilot survived the crash, thanks to the heroism of a local rancher who pulled him from the fire. That pilot slowly recovered and his helmet - crushed like an eggshell - was on display for some reason. He had the shakes really bad but resumed training and after 6 more months, he deployed to Vietnam.
He was killed about one month after he got there.
I wondered the same...
Donald Rumsfeld wanted the Ospreys gone from service.
this Blackhawk is the only one i found
Fanjet engines are not practical for an Osprey-type aircraft because of the high thrust engines required and the subsequent high exhaust velocities. Also, for maneuverability, fanjets are much less responsive to quick changes in thrust commands than variable pitch rotor blades are.
The Osprey already has a high blade disc loading compared most helicopters and the increased downwash velocity is a problem. A jet engine would have 10x more downwash concentrated in a smaller column of air.
Then there is the issue of the hot exhaust melting tarmac. This is already a problem for the Osprey and the F-35B.
Some forget, some are just ignorant and put their ignorance on full display.
RIP to your fellow Marines...and thanks for some really good insight on the hazards of military service.
Not the same as ground effect. Vortex ring can occur at altitude.
Most in the general public do not realize that any aircraft has growing pains. If they looked on the commercial aircraft they are routinely flying they will see external stiffeners and straps that are post production fixes.
My Ford Escort threw a fan belt. I’m going to bitch that Ford needs to cancel the Escort.
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