Osprey Struts Its Stuff at Farnborough

[Elspode]

In case Bruce hasn't posted it yet, Boeing is finally ready to say that the V22 Osprey tilt rotor is ready for prime time, by bringing it to the Farnborough Air Show.

[MaggieL]

"Bringing it"? Better than that: they flew them there from Goose Bay

[Elspode]

Poor choice of words. I didn't mean to intimate that they had been taken there as cargo. Flew 'em. Only one made it all the way, but they flew 'em.

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Poor choice of words. I didn't mean to intimate that they had been taken there as cargo. Flew 'em. Only one made it all the way, but they flew 'em.

Yeah...I knew how you meant it; but wanted to clarify. The V-22 has gotten a bad rep I don't think it deserves; considering what a radical advance it is the problems have actually been rather few.

[Pangloss62]

The only thing I like about that VTOL machine is that it's named after my favorite bird. It's hard to imagine just what role it's supposed to have in today's war theaters. It seems to me like a "jack of all trades, master of none" kinda thing.

The V-22 has gotten a bad rep I don't think it deserves

Perhaps, Maggie, but I've read that about 20 guys have died in about 4 different accidents in the development of that thing, and billions and billions have been spent. Let's hope the improvements at least make it safer, but I still like the bird it's named after better.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

Perhaps, Maggie, but I've read that about 20 guys have died in about 4 different accidents in the development of that thing, and billions and billions have been spent. Let's hope the improvements at least make it safer, but I still like the bird it's named after better.

And how is it radically different from the British Harrier VTOL?

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

Perhaps, Maggie, but I've read that about 20 guys have died in about 4 different accidents in the development of that thing, and billions and billions have been spent.

There was one prototype lost at Wilmigton because a mech wired the controls backwards. There was an inflight fire because drains on the rotating cowlings weren't properly designed. There have been I think two lost due to problems with pilot technique; the tiltrotor configuration has some unique failure modes; if you decend too fast without sufficient forward airspeed, for example.

But the advantages to tiltrotor are considerable: how about a commuter airliner that can operate from a helipad in a downtown area, for example?

Developing a completely new kind of aircraft does involve both risk and money. Ask Wilbur and Orville,Sikorsky, Mort Taylor, the crews of Apollo 1 and 13, Challenger and Columbia.

[Happy Monkey]

No doubt.

[JayMcGee]

Didn't Gloster develop something exctremely similar in the late '50s?

[MaggieL]

Originally Posted by JayMcGee

Didn't Gloster develop something exctremely similar in the late '50s?

Similar to the V-22? Or the Harrier? In either case, not that I'm aware of. Apparently Gloster's big entry in the late '50s was the Javelin fighter, but that wasn't VTOL. Closest in that era were probably the Lockheed XFV-1 and Convair XFY-1, neither of which was particularly successful, being *very* difficult to fly.

The V-22 control system is very impressive.

[JayMcGee]

Pre-dates the harrier. The craft I''m thinking of was very much like the boeiing thing, but the blades were a fan-blade configuration. All else was the same.
It may never have made it off the drawing-board, but the concept was all over 'Flight' magazine in the mid-late 50's

[MaggieL]

Fairey Rotodyne or Gyrodyne maybe. With the Gyrodyne you're getting into autogyo territory...which is interesting to me because Pitcairn and Kellet were local fellows who was very active in developing Cierva's autogyro concept. I've seen his "Miss Champion" fly...and you may have seen it in the film "The Rocketeer".

Pitcairn's "Pitcairn Field" airport was eventually donated to the US Navy to become Naval Air Station Willow Grove, just north of Philly.

[Pangloss62]

Funny you mention the F-111. I was listening to the Austalian Broadcasting Corp. on my shortwave the other night and heard about an emergency landing; now the fleet is grounded:

F-111 fleet groundedJuly 19, 2006
AN investigation into Australia's F-111s begins today after the 26-strong fleet was grounded following an emergency landing in Brisbane by one of the ageing strike bombers.
The aircraft made a belly landing at the RAAF's Amberley base west of Brisbane about 2.10pm (AEST) yesterday after losing a wheel on takeoff.

After circling the air base near Ipswich for almost three hours to burn off excess fuel, the jet came into land, creating a plume of sparks as it slid on its belly along the tarmac.

The 29-year-old pilot had only graduated from the F-111 training course two weeks ago, but his 32-year-old crew member is considered one of the most experienced F-111 navigators.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said the grounding of the F-111 fleet was necessary to ensure there was nothing structurally wrong with the planes.

Air Marshall Geoff Shepherd said it was the first time a wheel had ever fallen off an F-111 in the 30-year flying history of the planes in Australia.

He said there were still no clues as to why the wheel fell off as the jet took off on a routine flight to Tenterfield in northern NSW.

RAAF Amberley's Group Captain Leo Davies believed it may only take weeks for the investigation to be completed.

"Defence's flying safety investigators, Boeing - as the primary contractor for F111 maintenance - and a Melbourne-based team of engineers will head the investigation," he said.

"They will determine what happened and also assess how much work needs to be done and the time frame to get the aircraft back in the air again.

"They should make an assessment over the next few weeks."

Eight F-111s have crashed since they began operating in Australia in the 1970s, killing 10 crew.

[MaggieL]

[Ibby]

No, you just have to miss the ground, or forget to hit it.