Crash-Prone Hybrid Copter’s New Mission: Hauling the President???

[n2doc]

By David Axe August 31, 2011 |



It crashed four times in development, killing 30 crew and passengers. An unexplained crash during a combat mission in Afghanistan last year claimed four more lives. Despite its lethal reputation, in April the controversial V-22 Osprey tiltrotor got a high-profile new assignment: hauling cargo for the president’s entourage, starting in 2013.

Now that mission has expanded, and the Osprey will haul the entourage itself. A July solicitation by the Marine Corps asks for a company to supply VIP kits for four Ospreys. The kits include a liner to disguise the cabin’s pipes and wires, softer seats and a carpet bearing the squadron logo for the aircraft’s ramp.

Some observers see the VIP mods as a baby step towards putting the president himself in the $100-million dollar aircraft, dubbed the “Dream Machine” by one fawning writer. After an expensive false start, the Pentagon wants to buy a new fleet of presidential transports starting in 2017. The V-22 is officially a candidate.

...

Or, the move could be a sign of desperation by a Pentagon quickly running out of reliable large helicopters. In other words, lacking a viable alternative, the military believes it has little choice but to assign crash-prone Ospreys to presidential-support duty, because only the 100-strong Marine Osprey force has time and airframes to spare.

more

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/08/osprey-president-entourage/

[Romulox]

1. LOL. That thing has already killed dozen or more men.

It's not being put into service because of a shortage of helicopters (snort). It's being put into service because it is boondoggle/money pit for some influential Senator's constituency.

[Romulox]

15. Fact check: It has killed *30* men.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell-Boeing_V-22_Osprey#Notable_accidents

[Ian David]

2. That's probably the most dangerous piece of shit flying today. n/t

[Tesha]

3. I think it would be entirely appropriate if the President and every Member of Congress...

...who supported this program were *REQUIRED* to fly
on these helicopters frequently.

Tesha

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. +1,000,000 n/t

[RC]

4. Because it is too hard to get the President on a small plane.

"...the Pentagon wants to buy a new fleet of presidential transports starting in 2017. The V-22 is officially a candidate."

---

From looking at the picture, maybe if they designed a better set of wings. How does that thing stay in the air with those?

[bullwinkle428]

5. Breaking News : President Obama decides not to seek re-election in 2012

:scared:

[n2doc]

6. No, he'll be fine. They say "starting in 2017"

So whomever's next gets the 'fun'

[Aerows]

7. Do the wings turn up or something?

How does the thing land? It looks like the blades would get in the way of landing if the wings don't tilt upwards during landing. It looks kind of crappy to me.

[n2doc]

9. Yep. That is the point of the thing

It takes off like a helicopter, the wings then rotate and it flies like a plane. Most of the time.

[Aerows]

10. I don't want to fly in something

that only works most of the time. LOL. That's kind of like getting discount brain surgery that works "most of the time".

[Horse with no Name]

11. except for the frequent, unfortunate episodes of crashing, it works pretty well.

Same punch line as "Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs. Lincoln?

[Romulox]

14. It is apparently quite vulnerable to the "Vortex ring state"

Vortex ring effect in helicopters

The curved arrows indicate airflow circulation about the rotor disc. The helicopter shown is the RAH-66 Comanche.
Vortex ring state (VRS), also known as settling with power, is a hazardous condition encountered in helicopter flight. It happens when three things occur during flight: A high rate of descent, an airspeed lower than effective translational lift, and when the helicopter is using a large portion of its available power. A helicopter's main rotor typically directs airflow downwards to create lift, but with low horizontal airspeed, it induces a vortex ring. A toroid-shaped path of airflow circumscribes the blade disc, as the airflow moves down through the disc, then outward, up, inward, and then down through the top again. This re-circulation of flow can negate much of the lifting force and cause a catastrophic loss of altitude. Specific to vortex ring state is that the helicopter, operating in its own downwash, is descending through descending air. Applying more power (increasing collective pitch) serves to further accelerate the downwash through which the main-rotor is descending, exacerbating the condition.
In single rotor helicopters, a VRS can be corrected by moving the cyclic forward, which controls the pitch angle of the rotor blade, slightly pitching nose down, and establishing forward flight. In tandem-rotor helicopters, recovery is accomplished through lateral cyclic or pedal input. The aircraft will fly into "clean air", and will be able to regain lift.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_ring_state#Vortex_ring_effect_in_helicopters

[snooper2]

12. This is all speculation, but they still eat it up...

I should start writing for a living :)

[Xithras]

13. The Osprey gets a bad rap.

Yes, they lost four during development, but it was a new kind of aircraft and that was sort of the point of the "development" period...to find and fix the bugs. MANY experimental versions of military aircraft have crashed and killed people. The Ospreys crashes were only notable because it carried more people and lacked ejection seats, meaning that the death toll was pretty steep when it bit the dust.

The Osprey has been in service since 2005, and now has the best safety record of any aircraft used by the US Marines. They now have more than 100 of them in use, coming under regular enemy fire in Afghanistan, and yet they've only lost a single aircraft. SOCOM is even phased out the Pave Low, and is now using Ospreys for SpecOps missions.

The Sikorski Sea King, which currently hauls the president around, has been involved in hundreds of crashes.