Word: rotors
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...aircraft. The cover and the story, which included dated material, were neither balanced nor accurate. The first V-22 combat squadron deployed last month for operations in Iraq. The V-22 aircraft have been rigorously tested and found to be ready and relevant for combat operations. The Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft will provide our forces with unprecedented increases in speed and range as well as critically needed troop-lift, medevac and cargo capabilities. We have no doubts that the Marine Corps' V-22 Ospreys are ready for their most important mission: carrying our most precious assets--Marines and sailors--into...
After investing $20 billion over 25 years and losing 30 lives in the development of the controversial V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, known as the Osprey, the U.S. military might like to think that its long-awaited combat debut would go relatively smoothly. But even as 10 Marine V-22s have just arrived in Iraq, the Air Force - which is buying V-22s for special operations missions - has decided the gun on the Marines' version isn't good enough for an aircraft expressly designed to ferry troops into hot landing zones...
...nearly 70% of its procurement budget - and overseeing a program larger and more technically challenging than any the service was accustomed to managing. Sensing weakness at the Pentagon, congressional supporters, largely from the V-22's key manufacturing states of Texas (Bell Helicopter) and Pennsylvania (Boeing), created the Tilt-Rotor Technology Coalition to keep the craft alive, despite Cheney's opposition. They were aided by nearly 2,000 V-22 suppliers, in more than 40 states, who pressured their lawmakers to stick with the program. And so, despite Cheney's doubts, the Osprey survived...
...battlefield. Since 1971, more than a third of Harriers have crashed, killing 45 Marines in 143 accidents. But there's a critical difference between the two warplanes. Each Harrier carries a single pilot, nestled into an ejection seat with a parachute. But after all the debate about tilt-rotor technology - after all the vested interests have argued their case and all its boosters and critics have had their say - this much we know: within days, a V-22 will begin carrying up to 26 Marines into combat in Iraq, with no ejection seats - and no parachutes...
...touchdown into an very hard emergency landing, is at least survivable. It became clear, however, that the design of the Osprey, adjusted many times over, simply could not accommodate the maneuver. The Pentagon slowly conceded the point. "The lack of proven autorotative capability is cause for concern in tilt-rotor aircraft," a 1999 report warned. Two years later, a second study cautioned that the V-22's "probability of a successful autorotational landing ... is very low." Unable to rewrite the laws of physics, the Pentagon determined that the ability to perform the safety procedure was no longer a necessary requirement...