aircraft finds redemption

[Canuck_Buck]

Once derided as a white elephant, the U.S. Marine Corps' tilt-rotor aircraft, the V-22 Osprey, is proving its mettle in Iraq, military officials said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/08/osprey/index.html

The military, which has ordered 360 of the aircraft, said the 10 deployed to Iraq are doing what they are supposed to do -- carrying troops faster, farther and safer than the copters can.

Last September, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 left for Iraq's western Anbar province on the first deployment of the V-22.

Since then, [/b]the planes have logged more than 2,000 flight hours, initially doing routine cargo and troop movements from base to base in an area about the size of South Carolina.

......awesome...

[Aught Six]

Glad they seemed to have gotten the bugs out...

[kdvollmer]

I am here and have ridden in them. I have to be honest, they still scare the hell outta me. I would much rather fly on the old PROVEN helos that both the Army and Marines are flying here. There is really something to be said about an aircraft like our Helos that have been proven over the last 20-30 years. Like the old saying. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sure seems to ring true.

[Badger Boy]

problem is that blackhawks arent really meant for the desert, so they have a bunch of problems. They were designed for the european theater not for extreme climate areas. And while they might be particularly durable on a belly crash landing they, like most helos are very vulnerable to ground fire. The ospreys high speed twice that of the chinock and pave low and about 150kmt faster and has triple therange ofa blackhawk. While what we have is good, i dont think we can ever settle for good when we can strive for great. Every systems will have its kinks but you work through them. Thats essentially the story of humanity... we always want something bigger, badder, faster, better...

koodos to the Boeing team for building it and koodos to the navy pilotsflying them...

[kevin1]

ORIGINAL: Badger Boy

koodos to the Boeing team for building it and koodos to the navy pilotsÂ*flying them...

They were testing one of the prototypes in the hangar my helo squadron used while they were on deployment just before I was discharged. It was cool watching them take off and land. [8D]