Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey

The V-22 Osprey is a joint service, multi-mission military aircraft with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. It is designed to perform missions like a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.

Overview

First production Osprey to join the V-22 Navy flight test program since resumption of flight evaluations in May of 2002. Aircraft is shown in compact storage configuration.

The Osprey is the world's first production tiltrotor aircraft, with one three-bladed proprotor, turboprop engine, and transmission nacelle mounted on each wingtip. It typically operates as a helicopter with the nacelles vertical (rotors horizontal) for takeoff and landing. Once airborne, the nacelles rotate forward 90 degrees in as little as 12 seconds for horizontal flight, converting the V-22 to a high-speed, fuel-efficient turboprop airplane. STOL rolling-takeoff and landing capability is achieved by having the nacelles tilted forward up to 45 degrees. For compact storage aboard ship, the Osprey's wing rotates to align, front-to-back, with the fuselage. The proprotors also fold in a sequence taking between 90 and 120 seconds.

History

Development

The Osprey's development processes have been long and controversial. When the development budget, first set at $2.5 billion in 1986, had reached $30 billion in 1988, then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney zeroed out the budget, but was overruled by Congress. The first flight occurred on March 19, 1989.

The MV-22B is equipped with a glass cockpit, which incorporates four Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) and two Communications Display Units (CDUs), allowing the pilots to display a variety of layers, including: digimaps centered or decentered on current position, FLIR imagery, primary flight instruments, navigation (TACAN, VOR, ILS, GPS, INS) and system status. The flight director panel of the Cockpit Management System (CMS) allows for fully-coupled (aka: autopilot) functions which will take the aircraft from forward flight into a 50' hover with no pilot interaction other than programming the system.

The aircraft was originally designed to be pressurized, but the rotating wing (for shipboard stowage) makes it difficult to properly seal the cabin. As a result, pilots and aircrew must wear oxygen masks while flying above 10,000 feet (3,000 m). The Osprey uses an on-board oxygen generating system (OBOGS) which enriches ambient air by filtering out the oxygen. The nitrogen remaining is then routed to the fuel cells to fill the ullage with inert gas as the JP-5 is consumed.

The MV-22 is a fly-by-wire aircraft with triple redundant flight control systems. With the nacelles straight up in conversion mode (90 degrees), the flight computers command the aircraft to fly like a helicopter, with cyclic forces being applied to a conventional swashplate at the rotor hub. With the nacelles in airplane mode (0 degrees) the flaperons, rudder and elevator fly the aircraft like an airplane. This is a gradual transition which occurs over the entire 96 degree range of the nacelles. The lower the nacelles, the greater effect of the airplane-mode control surfaces.

The Osprey was developed and is built jointly by Bell Helicopter Textron, who manufacture and integrate the wing, nacelles, rotors, drive system, tail surfaces, and aft ramp, as well as integrating the Rolls-Royce engines; and Boeing Helicopters, who manufacture and integrate the fuselage, cockpit, avionics, and flight controls. Portions are manufactured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Amarillo, Texas. Final assembly and delivery occurs in Amarillo. The joint development team is known as Bell-Boeing.

Testing

A U.S. V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft flies a test mission

There have been four significant failures during testing:

• On June 11, 1991, a miswired flight control system led to two minor injuries when the left nacelle struck the ground while the plane was hovering 15 feet in the air, causing it to bounce and catch fire.
• On July 20, 1992, a leaking gearbox led to a fire in the right nacelle, causing the plane to drop into the Potomac River in front of an audience of Congressmen and other government officials at Quantico, killing all seven crewmen and grounding the plane for 11 months. The seven crewmembers were Brian J. James (copilot), Sean P. Joyce (crew chief), Gary Leader (crew chief), Gerald W. Mayan (instrumentation engineer), Robert Rayburn (flight test engineer), Anthony J. Stecyk, Jr. (mechanic), and Patrick J. Sullivan (pilot). James, Joyce and Leader served in the US Marine Corps. Mayan, Rayburn, Stecyk and Sullivan were employees of The Boeing Company.
• On April 8, 2000, two Ospreys, loaded with Marines to simulate a rescue, attempted to land at Marana Northwest Regional Airport in Arizona. They descended unusually quickly from an unusually high altitude; the second Osprey, descending at over 2,000 feet per minute (600 m per minute) with a forward speed of under 45 miles per hour, suddenly stalled in its right rotor at 245 feet, rolled over, crashed, and exploded, killing all nineteen on board. The official cause was determined to be vortex ring state (VRS), a fundamental limitation on vertical descent in helicopters, which resulted in public questioning of whether the fundamental premise of the aircraft might be fatally flawed. At the time of the mishap, however, the Osprey's flight operations rules restricted the Osprey to an 800 feet per minute (240 m/min) descent at lower than 40 knots (74 km/h) airspeed (restrictions typical of helicopters, as well); the crew of the aircraft in question exceeded this operating restriction threefold. Another factor that may have triggered VRS was their operating in close proximity, which is believed to be a risk factor for VRS in helicopters. The military claims that subsequent testing has shown that the Osprey, and the tiltrotor in general, is less susceptible to VRS; the conditions are easily recognized by the pilots; recovery from VRS requires a more natural action by the pilot than recovery in helicopters; the altitude loss is significantly less than for helicopters; and with sufficient altitude (2000 feet or more), VRS recovery is relatively easy. They also claim recognition of and recovery from VRS is easily trainable for new pilots. As a result of testing, the Osprey will have a descent envelope as large or larger than most helicopters, further enhancing its ability to enter and depart hostile landing zones quickly and safely. Osprey has also dealt with the problem by adding a simultaneous warning light and voice that says "Sink Rate" when the Osprey is approaches just half of the VRS-vulnerable descent rate. Critics believe the current solution is inadequate; some question whether this will limit effectiveness in combat zones that require fast and sudden maneuvers, and where they will frequently be operating in close proximity to other Ospreys.
• On December 11, 2000, a hydraulic leak caused by a wiring bundle chafing and wearing through a hydraulic line crippled an engine; a previously undiscovered error in the aircraft's control software caused it to decelerate each time in response to the pilot's eight attempts to reset the software to compensate for the dead engine, and the plane fell 1,600 feet into a forest, killing all four aboard. The four marines aboard were Lt. Col Keith M. Sweaney, Maj. Michael L. Murphy, Staff Sgt. Avely W. Runnels, and Sgt. Jason A. Buyck. The wiring harnesses and hydraulic line routing in the nacelles has been modified.

The Osprey completed its final operational evaluation (OPEVAL) in June 2005. The OPEVAL was extremely successful; events included long range deployments, high altitude, desert and shipboard operations. It is claimed that problems identified in all of these mishaps have been addressed by the V-22 program office and advocates of the program are optimistic that the aircraft is mature enough for fleet operations. Critics state that the aircraft will never be mature enough for fundamental design flaws and that the V-22 is inherently dangerous because of its flawed side-by-side rotor design, although in-line tandem rotor CH-46 and CH-47 Chinook helicopters have been operational for over 30 years.[1]

Controversy

Adding to the program's problematic development, the Osprey squadron's former commander at New River, Lieutenant Colonel Odin Lieberman, reputedly instructed his unit that they needed to falsify maintenance records to make the plane appear more reliable. A crew member's recording included him stating that "We need to lie or manipulate the data, or however you wanna call it".

Procurement

On September 28, 2005, the Pentagon formally approved full-rate production for the Osprey. The current plan is to boost production from 11 a year to 24 to 48 a year by 2012. Planned production quantities include 360 for the Marine Corps, 48 for the Navy, 50 for the Air Force. The US Army, originally the lead service for the then-named JVX program, is also a candidate for possible applications.

On December 12, 2005, the Pentagon announced that the procurement budget for the USMC V-22's would be reduced by $1.1 billion over the production run. The plans for the USAF were unaffected.

On July 8, 2006, the Pentagon announced plans to buy two new V-22's within the 2007 military budget outlined by President George W. Bush and his cabinet.

At the 2006 Royal International Air Tattoo the V-22 Osprey flew for the first time in the United Kingdom.

Israel has shown interest in the purchase of an undisclosed number of MV-22's, but an official order has not been placed or approved. [2]

Plans to use the Osprey in Iraq in 2007 have been revealed by the manufacturer Boeing. [3]

Variants

The United States Marine Corps is the lead service in the development of the V-22 Osprey. The Marine Corps version, the MV-22B, will be an assault transport for troops, equipment and supplies, and will be capable of operating from ships or from expeditionary airfields ashore.

Osprey at NAS Pensacola, Nov 2006

The planned, but as yet unfunded, U.S. Navy HV-22 will provide combat search and rescue, delivery and retrieval of special warfare teams along with fleet logistic support transport.

The CV-22 operated by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) will conduct long-range special operations missions, combat rescue, among other special missions. The V-22 Osprey will replace the Marine Corps CH-46E and CH-53D. However, it will not replace the Air Force's MH-53 Pave Low helicopters. The Air Force officially accepted the CV-22 on 16 November 2006 in a ceremony conducted at Hurlburt Field.

Service

On June 3, 2005, the United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron, HMM-263, stood down to begin the process of transitioning to the MV-22 Osprey. On December 8 2005, Lieutenant General Amos, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, accepted the delivery of the first fleet of MV-22s, delivered to HMM-263. The unit reactivated March 3, 2006 as the first MV-22 squadron, and was re-designated VMM-263. The Osprey will enter operational service with the Marine Corps in 2007.

In the spring of 2006 an Osprey experienced an uncommanded engine acceleration while ground turning at MCAS New River. Since the aircraft regulates power turbine speed with blade pitch, the reaction caused the aircraft to go airborne with the Torque Control Lever (TCL, or throttle) at idle. It was later found that a mis-wired cannon plug to one of the engine's two Full Authority Digital Engine Controls (FADEC) was the cause. After the aircraft was airborne for approx 2 seconds, and 30 feet in the air, the second FADEC recognized the fault, took over, and made the engine speed match the TCL position--idle. The aircraft came back to the ground and one wing broke off, as it is designed to do, to absorb the impact. There were no serious injuries. Pilots now guard the controls during this point in the startup checklist in case of inadvertent flight, so that if the aircraft goes flying, they can keep it flying (push the TCL forward) until the FADECs switch over, then land it safely.

Limitations

Because of the extreme downdraft of the propellers, Marines cannot rappel out the side doors as on conventional helicopters. Moreover, the engines would block the firing arc of side-mounted machine guns and so none can be fitted in these positions. Marines will use the rear ramp to exit and use the M240 as a rear mounted gun. A chin-mounted turret has also been proposed.

The Osprey's 38 foot (11.58 meters) proprotor diameter makes a conventional takeoff impossible, as the blades would strike the ground. With the nacelles set at 45 degrees or less to the vertical, it is capable of making shortened ground-roll takeoffs as well as vertical, helicopter-style departures.

Specifications (V-22)

Data from Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and Navy Air Systems Command

General characteristics

• Crew: two pilots
• Capacity: 24 troops

Performance

External links

• Official page at the Boeing site
• Discussion of V-22 VRS accident
• Series of articles critical of the safety of the V-22
• Saving the Pentagon's Killer Chopper-Plane - Wired News, Issue 13.07, July 2005
• After decades of tragedy, Osprey may be ready for combat, Otto Kreisher, San Diego Tribune, July 15, 2005
• A video footage of the 1991 Osprey crash with commentary
• Dispelling the Myths of the MV-22
• Osprey OK'd
• Onward and Upward
• "Flight of the Osprey", U.S. Navy video of V-22 operations.
• VMM-263 ready to write next chapter in Osprey program
• Congressional Research Service Summary of V-22 Pros and Cons
• Review of political forces that helped shape V-22 program
• The Osprey finally soars - Jul 18, 2006

Related content

• Tiltrotor

Related development

• Bell XV-15
• Bell/Agusta BA609
• Quad Tilt Rotor

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• List of VTOL aircraft