If you go through some of Springbored's links, you'll find out that the Osprey cannot be maintained on a ship (no room to rotate the engine nacelles) and that it cannot be used in the western U.S. for much of the year, other than on a paved airport, as it tends to set lots of vegetation on fire when it lands.
Two aircraft procurement projects were started in the first term of the Reagan Administration, the F-22 and the MV-22; which consumed a shitload of money and produced aircraft that are of marginal utility.
Budget axes should be swung.
I always thought the Osprey could totally revolutionize rural air transit. Imagine if you will that any Wal-Mart parking lot could suddenly be an airport in to whatever passes for the local big town.
ReplyDeleteBut it's probably too expensive.
Is that one of the toys that the republicans tried to get more of in the latest military spending bill?
ReplyDeleteBridget, tilt-rotors are not a new concept, but they have two drawbacks. One is that they are hellaciously expensive. The other is that they cannot autorotate, so there are phases in the flight where engine failure equals instant death.
ReplyDeleteTerrant, that's indeed one of the Wingnut Welfare programs.
Bridget, see: Helicopter. Safety reasons keep helicopters out of Walmart parking lots (other than emergency services helicopters), not inability to use them as airports.
ReplyDeleteThe Osprey need a concrete pad, can't land on asphalt, because the blast from its turbines is aimed directly down when the aircraft is on the ground and would melt/set on fire asphalt. *not* what you want happening to your local Walmart parking lot. And its maintenance costs are even higher than a helicopter's. The only advantage the Osprey has over a helicopter is increased range and higher cruising speed at altitude, which allows the Osprey to self-deploy as vs. helicopters which must be flown into the area on a giant cargo plane if they're not already in theatre. But the Osprey's disadvantages are making its advantages appear quite minimal.
Give the Maroons some new Sea Knights (Boeing would be happy to open a new production line for them) and let's be done with it. But wait, that'd make too much sense. Heh.
BadTux, when the Ospreys tried to self-deploy the first time, at least one wound up dead on a runway in Iceland or some such place.
ReplyDeleteThey are coming out of Iraq on the flight deck of the USS Wasp.