Facts About Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey
Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

Introduction :

The V-22 osprey certainly doesn't look like anything we've ever seen before.

It looks frankly quite bizarre and it's a revolutionary piece of military hardware but it's been a bit of a bumpy ride for this bizarre and certainly beast of an aircraft.

The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor military aircraft made for US Forces, capable of both vertical takeoff and landing VTOL and short takeoff and landing airstone.

The tilt-rotor refers to an aircraft that generates lift and propulsion using one or more powered rotors typically at the ends of fixed wings.

This is an aircraft that has two modes :  helicopter and fixed wing essentially acting as an aircraft rather than a helicopter.

While there are certainly other examples of tilt-rotor aircraft the size and power of the V-22 osprey places it truly in a league of its own.


The Need :

The failure of the operation eagle claw in 1980 a plan to rescue the 52 hostages held captive in the US embassy in Tehran highlighted the need for a new long-range high-speed vertical takeoff aircraft.

Despite first appearing in 1989,  it was another eight years before their full introduction but even then the whole project seemed to be a work in progress as recently as 2015 the V-22 was still undergoing tests.

This has been an aircraft with a catalogue of issues to overcome and costs which have eclipsed initial estimates but whoever said that designing revolutionary forms of transportation was ever quick easy or cheap certainly not the military the V-22 has required plenty of patience but it's certainly been worth it.

Operation eagle claw which took place between the 24th and the 25th of April 1980 was an utter fiasco the plan to rescue the hostages in Tehran didn't even get past its early stages and was certainly a long way from the Iranian capital.

Perhaps the most glaring of the failures was the performance of the RH-53dc stallion helicopters three of the eight helicopters experienced technical difficulties during the mission heavily contributing to its failure which ended up costing the lives of eight u.s marines and one Iranian civilian.

After such a debacle there was a strong consensus that the US needed a major upgrade in terms of its heavy lifting helicopters.

The joint service vertical takeoff landing experimental aircraft program jvx began in 1981 under the leadership of the US Army in December 1982.


Production :

A request for proposal (RPF) was issued with aerospatial Bell helicopter, Boeing, vertol Gruman ,lockheed and westland all interested in building this new helicopter these contractors were asked to partner with each other with bell and boeing vertole joining forces and submitting a modified design of the bell 15 prototype on the 17th of february 1983.

Considering this was the only design ever received it wasn't a difficult choice for the American military here a contract was awarded to Bell-Boeing on the 26th of April 1983.

On the 15th of January 1985 the jvx aircraft was given a new name the V-22 osprey.

An osprey is a fish-eating hawk widespread in the united states and indeed across every continent except for Antarctica.

They're big powerful and they operate near water this name, therefore, seemed perfect for this new aircraft which had also taken the fancy of the US Navy.

By March 1985, the first six prototypes were under production with work split between Bell and Boeing.

Bell focused on the wing nacelle's rotor drive system tail surfaces and aft ramp as well as integrating the Rolls-Royce engines and performing final assembly.

Boeing took care of the fuselage cockpit avionics and flight controls.

Full-scale development took a giant step forward on the 3rd of May 1986 with a 1.714 billion about 4 billion dollars today the contract for the V-22 signed by the US Navy.

But at this point all four sections of the US military had placed orders for the V-22 osprey.

The V-22 made its public bow in may 1988 and it looked like it would have a blossoming future from there but things started to go wrong pretty quick firstly the army left the project stating they needed to focus on more immediate programs while in 1989 the V-22 narrowly passed two senate votes which would have effectively gutted the program but this was just the beginning of a messy squabble over finance that highlighted both deep divisions within the US government and also the astronomical costs that were being bounded around.

The department of defense instructed the navy not to spend more on the V-22 with defense secretary Dick Cheney trying in vain to defund the project between 1989 and 1992.

He was overruled by congress but it was hardly a cohesive unit moving forward the Clinton administration which arrived in 1992 seemed much more open to the V-22 and it received the financial backing that it needed on march 2nd 1989.

 


Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey
Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

The first prototype took to the sky but only in helicopter mode.

Its first performance in fixed-wing mode came on the 14th of December 1989.

In December 1990 the third and fourth prototypes took part in successful sea trials on the USS Wasp.

The fourth and fifth prototypes, however, both crashed between 91 and 92.

Following these two incidents, the V-22 saw several design changes to lower its empty takeoff weight reduce production costs as well as generally simplifying the manufacturing wherever possible.

This is a trend that seems to pop up time and time again with the V-22, the next 10 years saw countless tests and slight alterations.

The first of four low rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft was delivered on the 27th of May 1999 and sea trials were completed aboard the USS Saipan in January 1999.

LRIP the initial small quantity units which are often used for testing and training in the military a way of ironing out the creases before full-scale production goes ahead.

The V-22 was plodding along painfully slowly and tragedy was just around the corner.

On April the 8th 2000 the V-22 carrying 15 marines along with its crew of four crashed in Arizona, killing all onboard the cause of the crash was determined to be the rate of descent prior to the V-22 entering an erratic role the aircraft was dropping at a rate of 609 meters 2000 feet a minute well above the recommended 243 meters 800 feet a minute.

All V-22s were grounded as the crash was investigated but conclusions were ultimately made that the aircraft itself was not to blame.

However, a report was written by the department of defense director of operational test and evaluation stated that the V-22 was not operationally suitable primarily because of reliability, maintainability, availability of human factors and interoperability issues.

This was a truly damning verdict it took another five years before the V-22 completed its final operational evaluation in 2005.

But things were still not quite done US navy air systems command began to work on an upgrade to increase the maximum speed from 250 knots to 270 knots and to increase its helicopter mode altitude from 3 000 to 4 300 meters.

By 2012, these upgrades appear to have been completed and the V-22 landed and refuelled onboard the USS Nimitz.

In an evaluation in October 2012 and performed cargo handling trials aboard the harry s Truman in 2013.

But by this point V-22s were already being used in operations around the world.

The V-22 is unique so it's not entirely surprising that it took so long to get it right the world's first production tilt-rotor aircraft has two three-bladed pro protes located on the transmission nacelles mounted on each wingtip and a turboprop engine the V-22 is of course a little bit helicopter and a little bit of aircraft.


Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

During takeoff and landing it normally operates as a helicopter with its nacelles in a vertical position and the road is horizontal.

However, while airborne the nacelles can swivel forward 90 degrees to transform the V-22 into a fuel-efficient higher speed turboprop aircraft.

Body of the aircraft is composed of composite materials a grouping of different materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties.

The rotors are also made of composite materials and can be folded neatly in just 90 seconds.

When the aircraft needs to be stored, the exhaust heat coming from the V-22's engine is so ferocious it can damage flight decks, to get around this the naval air systems command implemented portable heat shields to be placed under the engines while on decks.

This is seen as a short-term fix and eventually decks will need to be redesigned with heat resistant coating and passive thermal barriers.

 The V-22 is powered by two Rolls-Royce AE-1107c engines these are connected to a common central gearbox meaning that one engine can keep the aircraft in the air should the other fails.

Now when I say in the air it's generally considered that one engine would not be enough to keep the V-22 hovering for any significant amount of time but it can still theoretically function.


Specifications :

In September 2013 Rolls-Royce increased the AE-1107c engine's power by 17 percent which would also improve reliability in high altitude and high conditions.

Not only that but it would boost the maximum payload limitations from 6000 to 8000 shaft horsepower.

They have a length of 17.48 meters and a width of 25.7 meters including rotors.

The V-22s have a capacity of 24 seated troops or 32 troops floor loaded alternatively, it can carry 9070 kilograms of internal cargo or up to 6800 kilograms of external cargo using a dual hook.

Is has a service ceiling of 7600 meters and a range of 1 628 kilometers.

Now this is primarily a transport helicopter but it can still pack a punch if needed it can be armed with one 7.62x51 millimetre NATO M-240 machine gun or a 12.7-millimetre M2 machine gun on the rear loading ramp.

In 2009, half of the V-22s deployed to Afghanistan had bae systems as an interim defense weapon system installed.

This remotely operated gun turret system was used by the gunner to acquire targets through a separate pod using colour television and forward-looking infrared imagery however its use was limited because of its huge weight of 360 kilograms and the restrictive rules of engagement during the conflict.

A roll-on roll-off aerial refuelling kit is currently under development which would give the V-22 the ability to refuel other aircraft with Boeing first testing the kit on the 5th of September 2013.


Operations :

The V-22 osprey has been used in numerous operations around the world by July 2008 a total of 3000 missions totalling some 5200 hours had been carried out by V-22s in Iraq. 

They were mainly used for risky scouting operations and for transportation and though they were fired upon on numerous occasions, the US didn't lose a single one.

The first combat operations came in Afghanistan in 2009 during operation Cobra’s Anger on the 4th of December 2009 in Helmand province by 2011 they had amassed a hundred thousand flight hours throughout Afghanistan.

They have also participated in combat operations in South Sudan and Yemen.

January 2010 saw V-22 participate in operation unified response after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti.

And in 2013 they were deployed to the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan had swept through the area.

In 2014 they were directed to Liberia to aid in the attempt to contain the Ebola outbreak in the country.

They've carried presidents, first ladies, generals and many more but perhaps one of the most significant people the V-22 have ever carried was very much dead on the 2nd of May 2011 a V-22 landed on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson its cargo that day was the dead body of the man the united states had been searching for well over a decade Osama bin laden his body as we know was buried at sea but it was just another day for the V-22.

Conclusion :

No one would claim that it's been an easy ride for the V-22 at a cost of about 68 million dollars per aircraft you can see why there have been plenty of reservations along the way it is a flawed genius which has needed countless tweaks and modifications along the way to make it what it is we see today but despite its troubled path and frankly eye-watering cost what has finally emerged is extraordinary and may well fundamentally change how we view aviation the design of the tilt-rotor aircraft has gone up to a completely different stratosphere the V-22 osprey part aircraft part helicopter one very fast very agile revolutionary piece of engineering.

 

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