If someone offered me a ride, I'd pass. If they offered to let me fly it, I might go, but only once ..

There are very few things that can fail on an airplane that will kill you, and most of them are very simple, and very robust. The are thousands of things non a P/L aircraft that can fail and kill you and many of them are very complicated.

The only thing the two aircraft have in common is that they look a bit alike (from a distance). The V22 can carry up to 24 combat equipped troops plus a crew of 3. The interior space of a 609 is smaller than a King Air. I'm not saying that the V22 is worth $70 MM, but it's not really a fair comparison cost-wise.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/swhAmKDBBuw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/xwPdWcKh6-s[/youtube]

There's a synch shaft between the prop rotors. If one engine quits then it's a lot like a twin engined helicopter- the dead engine just winds down (each engine has a overrunning clutch that works just like when you stop pedaling a bicycle) and the good engine picks up the load within what power it is able to provide. There is no sudden yaw or torque effects like a multiengine airplane.

With the nacelles vertical and dual engine failure, it can autorotate- although the descent rate quite a bit greater than a helicopter.

If the the nacelles get stuck horizontally or on an angle then the ship can make a running landing. The prop rotor blades shear off when they contact the ground.

An obvious niche for these things is about 2 hours, 500 miles, rooftop-to-rooftop and/or airport-to-rooftop. I don't think there is any medium executive helicopter with those kind of legs or speed. I don't know how much money there is to be made in this niche though.



I have lots of friends flying the V-22 but I can't speak very knowledgeably about it operationally. Its speed and range is a big selling point... obviously. For example- when Haiti had its big earthquake ten years ago and the Port-au-Prince airport was pretty clobbered, the V-22 was the only asset that could go direct from Miami to an LZ, bypassing the airport and the aircraft carrier (but still hitting either the carrier or the gator to refuel for the trip home). I don't know how much it was used that way; I wasn't involved in that one. There's the same concept in theater logistics (i.e. delivering stuff over medium ranges directly to whoever needs it and skipping the intermediate stop to transfer the cargo into a helicopter or a truck).

Crashtalk is going to get interesting in a few years.

I see them at air shows and speak with crews and they all report that the maintenance hours are horrific.

Just


Good question.

Would be a cool thing to arrive in.

Isn't this the plane the Marine Corps said they didn't want and Congress bought it anyway? I seem to remember Bell placing manufacturing in all 50 states and key voting congressional districts therein.

Isn't this the plane the Marine Corps said they didn't want and Congress bought it anyway? I seem to remember Bell placing manufacturing in all 50 states and key voting congressional districts therein.