Posted on 09/27/2007 4:42:39 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The oddest-looking member of the Edwards Air Force Base test fleet is about to leave after successfully completing its test and evaluation program. The CV-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft, a cross between a helicopter and a fixed-wing airplane. The hybrid aircraft is in a class by itself, combining the small-field landing and hovering capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and distance of an airplane.
"At this point the CV-22 program is graduating from the test and evaluation phase to the operational test phase," Steve Sisterman, director of the integrated test team, said Wednesday, as the CV-22 made one of its final test flights.
The Air Force version of the Marine Corps' MV-22, the aircraft will be used by special operations forces where its mission will be the long-range delivery and retrieval of special operation soldiers and resupplying such teams.
The tilt-rotor accomplishes its task by rotating its engines, mounted on the wings. With the engines down, the aircraft looks and flies like an airplane with propellers at the front end of the twin engines, one on each wing.
The engines, however, can rotate so they are perpendicular to the aircraft body, turning the engine propellers into twin helicopter rotors.
The CV-22 test program began in 2000, with the first two aircraft arriving at Edwards in 2002. A third test aircraft - one that most closely resembles the production version - arrived in February 2005.
The aircraft have logged a total of nearly 2,000 hours of flight testing during the test and evaluation program, successfully meeting all test objectives, All three will be leaving next month for Hurlburt Field, Fla., home to the Air Force Special Operations Command, where they will be used in operational testing for the next six to nine months.
(Excerpt) Read more at avpress.com ...
"STRANGE BUT EFFICIENT - The tilt-rotor CV-22 Osprey takes off at Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday. The CV-22 combines small-field landing and hovering capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and distance of an airplane." KELLY LACEFIELD/Valley Press
From the headline, I thought something was attacking John Edwards. Boy was I disappointed when I opened the thread.
Bell unveiled a civilian version at this summer’s Paris air show.
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