“Green Tops” MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft fly the President’s supporting staff and Secret Service agents.
Posted on 05/28/2018 4:31:00 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
“Green Tops” MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft fly the President’s supporting staff and Secret Service agents.
(video at link)
The clip was probably filmed by one of the escorting U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. In fact, “Marine One” (when President of the U.S. travels aboard the VH-3D or any other chopper operated by HMX-1, the helicopter uses the radio callsign “Marine One” by which the aircraft is known) was escorted by green-painted MV-22 Ospreys (also referred to as “Green Tops”) that fly the White House Staff during the President’s travels.
The tilt-rotor aircraft fly also the Secret Service agents that follow “Marine One” and take care of its valuable passengers in case the helicopter goes down due to a failure.
Usually, at least two or three Ospreys accompany “Marine One”. For instance, when last year Trump traveled to Virginia’s Newport News Shipbuilding facility to visit pre-commissioning unit USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN78), the two VH-3Ds were escorted by three MV-22s.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaviationist.com ...
Remember when the entourage had to go off the road and drive through a culvert?
The most vulnerable phase of a helicopter’s flight in combat is during ingress and egress.
The advantage of the Osprey is that it dramatically shortens the time incoming and outgoing that it is susceptible to ground fire.
I will tell you from personal experience too, is that the Osprey is NOTHING like a helicopter with respect to knowing it is coming. I have spent a good part of my life around helicopters, watching them avidly both as a kid and serving in active duty, and you can hear every helicopter made from miles and miles away.
Their speed is so slow, and the beating of the rotors so loud that it is easy to pick up helicopters.
I had no such experience observing Ospreys, until last year. I was down on the beach on the Outer Banks in North Carolina with friends, when I heard an approaching aircraft...I turned to see an Osprey at about a thousand feet moving fast (they travel much faster than traditional helicopters) and I could not even get my camera out in time before the thing had passed and was far away.
I spend the next few hours watching a couple of these unusual aircraft pass by overhead over and over, flying at full speed at about 500-1000 feet, coming to a full stop, and dropping rapidly to the runway at a small civilian airfield.
Then, after they landed, they would lift off, and rapidly scoot away. No comparison to a standard helicopter. Those things would rise and move out, because in a helicopter, to really move out a maximum speed, they have to drop the nose and it takes a bit to get up to speed. Not the Ospreys. They move out far faster in a level attitude, only those large props changing their tilt.
I was astounded at the difference in sound between the Osprey and a helicopter, and how fast it was able to come in with nowhere near the flair needed coming in (helicopter tilts nose to the sky to decrease the footprint of the flair) and how fast it could lift off and move out.
That is why the USMC fought so hard and diligently to get the platform. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it isn’t a contest in ingress and egress.
I would be interested to hear from some Freepers who have personal experience.
No, action hero movies look like that photo.
Amen
This always makes me laugh.. Lil brotherly rivalry...
Piloting one of those is probably a little tougher than flying a helicopter or a jet... So I think a lot of the crashes have been pilot error. That being said the whole thing looks a little unstable to begin with, so count me out. I’d prefer a C130 gunship with 4 engines and a couple of tons of firepower any day of the week.
Of course, in an M1 Tank, you don’t have to hover for an agonizing period of time above contested areas trying to get up or down off the ground where everyone can see you and shoot at you either!
Interesting. I’ve been skeptical of the thing for a long time and would need convincing. Granted it flies faster but it’s so darn complex...
“....one of the Presidential VH-3D helicoptors....”
Wow, they look so 3D!”
You chopper jockeys are nuts!
Pump up yer own damn accumulators LOL, Auto rotation? No thanks
If they aren't spinning, it's either sitting on the ground or dropping like a rock. Those aren't in full horizontal flight- much closer to the alignment for vertical flight.
may wanna check the born-on date on that one.
One thing to keep in mind is that these were not only new technology, they were new concepts in aviation.
Even though there had been prototypes many years before that had achieved some form of vertical takeoff and landing, they were strictly prototypes and never taken to production.
So this was an entirely new form of aviation. They were not helicopters, whose flight characteristics were well understood. This was something new, and it had unusual characteristics all its own.
Specifically, they found out the hard way that this particular form of aircraft was far more susceptible to an unusual state called Vortex Ring State. It was known in helicopters, but was far easier to identify and get out of. What happens is, when a helicopter descends vertically too quickly, it causes the rotors to lose lift, and the aircraft rate of descent increases alarmingly.
Traditional helicopter pilots know where in the flight envelope they would encounter this, and they are all trained on how to get out of it. Generally, they know how to avoid it, and stay ahead of the eight ball to do so. If they DO get into it, they know how to get out of it. It is standard training, if I understand it correctly.
In the Osprey, an entirely new form of aircraft, there were two problems they were generally unaware of: where in the flight envelope they would encounter it, and how they could get out of it.
It turned out, they were FAR more vulnerable to it than a traditional rotorcraft, they didn’t have a handle on where they would encounter it, and they had no idea how to get out of it. (IIRC, they just assumed that their training on vortex ring state as helicopter pilots was adequate, that they would see it the same way in the same place, and the technique to get out of it was the same as well.
It took multiple Class A mishaps (loss of life/platform) before they got a handle on it...they had at least one major mishap involving vortex ring state (dropping to the ground too fast and losing lift) that killed an entire compliment of men aboard (I think three crew and 24 Marines) and additional accidents that destroyed the aircraft without that loss of life, all due to ring vortex state.
(IIRC, they did have another Osprey fully loaded with men that crashed killing all aboard, but it was due to an engine fire not ring vortex state...an accident caused by the complexity of the machine, flawed construction, and poor maintenance procedures.
Anyway, with vortex ring state, they adjusted the software, changed the instrumentation, and trained the pilots. The aircraft is still susceptible to it, but they know how to avoid it and recover from it.
It is still a complicated machine require higher maintenance, but it is also far more capable too.
LOL, I know. Hey, I am not a helicopter guy, I was a jet mechanic. I was told once by a helicopter guy about “The Jesus Nut” up there in the rotor.
It is the one that can’t come lose, fall off, break, or otherwise fail, because if it does, you are going to meet Jesus!
Anyway, I am told the Osprey cannot effectively autorotate in a meaningful way...you are going to have to crash land it like a plane. It is more survivable in a crash than a typical helicopter (where the engines in those RIGHT ABOVE YOU come smashing through the overhead, with all the hot oil, hydraulic fluid, and fuel into your LAP!) and the Osprey rotors are intended to “jackstraw” when they impact the ground so you don’t get the same nasty effect a rotor on a helicopter would have, but...it is still a crash landing.
Either way I agree with you...I don’t want to be there. I learned the how and why of autorotation and sat through one when I took a helicopter flight lesson, and that seemed like a HELL of a way to land a craft with no power!
My buddy is an apache pilot.
Been on a few blackhawks
Aint my cup of tea
I admire them, but I am with you on that! (I only flew on a Sea King once, and a small civilian helicopter once, so I am no expert on that end...)
Long time ago.
LOL, different kind of trip...:)
Taking off in the desert the rotor whips up a piezoelectric wind storm off the quartz sand...
It produces a purple halo of electric light.
Give my submarine and St Elmos Fire
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