February 12, 2008
V-22 Osprey's early performance in Iraq a success
Always a favorite airplane of mine. This CNN story gives a positive report, though there is some negative stuff in the bottom third.
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.The Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a plane, was designed to replace the Corps' aging and less-capable helicopter fleet.
...
Last September, Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 left for Iraq's western Anbar province on the first deployment of the V-22.
Since then, 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.
In December, commanders gave the planes a more risky mission called "aero-scout" in which a group of V-22s flies into a relatively unsecured location and drops off Marines for a search mission.
The planes sit on the ground until the Marines load up and then fly off to somewhere else for another mission.
12 Feb 2008 12:39 PM | Send comments to comments@techpopuli.net