Lets hope that the Ospry is a success, not a flop. Maybe we expect one vehicle to do too many things well and hope it wont do them all in a half arsed fashion. Or , we can always build a mini C130 with STOL capabilities. Time will tell all.
I was in the S-3A/B special project program in '86 when Boeing thought this airframe was to replace the S-3A/B community for the Navy. Some issues that arose were; 1) the original engines to the aircraft, (in order to increase the legs of the mission) would have to reduce the weight, thus in turn would increase the maintenance effort. 2) There were no defense capabilities. 3) Packed with such a large avionics suite, on-stay time would be decreased. 4) With such a large tilt rotor, and wingspan, the aircraft would take too much space on the carrier.
With such a flawed design, and now two decades later, you would think that this pork barrel would have kept some senator’s retirement afloat. It just does not figure; why would you place such a sky pig in the air at the expense of peoples lives then yes, millions of dollars later, you force this contraption down the Navy/Marines throat, a better designed aircraft would have much better served it’s purpose, and at least resemble something spiriting it into the 21st century.
Man… they just screwed this one up. Because this program continues, guess you can say; the personnel who lost their lives to date, will have been justified, and not died in vain. I hope that if, and when the production line ceases, parts are continuously built to maintain it. One more point to make, ensure that airframe cables for the control surfaces get maintenance, unlike the S-3.
I've read nothing but bad news about these planes. Like the user before mentioned, This is a pork barrel disaster in the making. 60 minutes had a good segment on this earlier this year. No way in hell would i want to be on a mission in one of these.
Compared to any and all conventional helos, the Osprey gives the Marines vastly greater range, vastly greater speed, and substantially greater payload. This makes new missions possible. Marines love new missions, and that is why the Marines love the Osprey. Simple.
The V-22 is a great platform. Unfortunately, it has been the target of liberal hacks for years. Note that the one of the program's big critics, a self-titled "non-partisan" think tank, CDI (Center for Defense Intelligence) is a who's who of liberal activists, and the group cited in this article, the Center for American Progress, is another liberal/progressive peace/love/ organization that is intrinsically opposed to military goals and core beliefs. They generally believe they can achieve peace by hugging the bad guys.
And a lot of the pilots are not necessarily WOs, they are guys who transitioned from the CH-46 or other older platforms, making them captains, majors, ltcols, and cols; men who are strong believers in the capabilities of this airframe because they have been involved in the development process, they have been flying it, and they understand it.
like any other new technology there has always been all sorts of issues. There has not been one major military weapon system that did not have "growing pains" of some sort as the weapon system matured. New technology does not come cheap and sorry to say sometimes that price includes loss of life. I have no doubt that the Osprey will prove itself and will lead to even bigger and better similiar weapon systems. Best of luck for the crews as they and their machines are tested on the field of battle.
There were a lot of aircraft back in WWII thought of as "Widow makers"...until the kinks were worked out or, proper training was developed for the pilots and maintence guys..The Lightning and the Maurader come to mind as two such planes. And both of those became vicious and famous planes during the war. Don't be dawging these birds out just yet, Let them prove what their capabilities are...hell their replacing the CH 46, whose last production date was 1961. I road in many of those birds with bullet hole patches in them...(and crashed riding in one back in 82). So, do you think their just as safe or safer than the Osprey? Ooh Rah Thunder Chickens! Make (Good) history!
Originally posted by 2552375: Good luck to the Warrants that have to fly those birds. They are the flying death carts. Might as well as well take a funeral car
From your comment, you obviously know little of the topic.
Only the Army uses Warrant Officers as pilots, the Navy, Air force, and Marines use Commissioned Officers. In this case were talking Marines so their all 1stLt to LtCol in the squadron.
As to safety… there were more people killed in the testing of the F-4 than the Osprey, and that includes the passengers who died in the back during the MISHAP in California. Additionally, I’d say the best source of information for safety and reliability would be the pilots who fly them every day. If you speak to an Osprey pilot you will find they are the biggest supporters of the airframe.
Originally posted by usmc_family: Compared to any and all conventional helos, the Osprey gives the Marines vastly greater range, vastly greater speed, and substantially greater payload. This makes new missions possible. Marines love new missions, and that is why the Marines love the Osprey. Simple.
Your right on two counts, goes farther, fly’s faster. However it can carry little more than the Phrog (CH-46E) and no where close to what the CH-53D or CH-53E can carry.
Let’s not forget that helos started with wooden rotors (that’s the big propeller on the top for you non rotary wing types) and the CH-53K (2012 delivery to the fleet) is about as far as you can go with the concept due to aerodynamic reasons. However, had we never invested in the wooden rotor helos, we would never have made it to the CH-53K. The Osprey is the beginning of V-STOL rotary wing (not to be confused with V-STOL fixed wing like the Harrier) and as technology is tested and invested in during real world implementation leaps and bounds will be made on the next T/M/S (type/model/series) to be converted, just like was done with the original wooden props.
Good luck to the Warrants that have to fly those birds. They are the flying death carts. Might as well as well take a funeral car 
