I used to cover the Osprey as a reporter because Boeing was in my coverage area, and I’m still astounded at 1) the staggering cost and 2) the lack of any reasonable return on the taxpayers’ dollars:
More than half of the Air Force’s small fleet of CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft are seeing only limited flight time while they await modifications to a faulty engine component that caused a fire in a Marine Corps version of the aircraft.
Four of the service’s seven Ospreys are being flown only “on an as-required basis,” while three have already been modified and are fully operational, said 1st Lt. Amy Cooper, a spokeswoman for Air Force Special Operations Command, which owns the aircraft.
Work on the remaining four aircraft should be complete “shortly after the new year,” Cooper said, allowing them to return to full service.
The Air Force has four operational Ospreys at Hurlburt Field, Fla., and three training aircraft at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
The modifications were ordered after a Marine Corps Osprey from Marine Corps Air Station New River, N.C., had to make an emergency landing due to an engine fire Nov. 6.
Plus the Osprey has an alarming tendency to fall out of the sky like a rock for no apparent reason, killing Marines (30 dead so far). When it comes to supporting large corporations or supporting the troops, I’m afraid we all know where the dollars are going to go.
“… lack of any reasonable return…”
Susie, haven’t you watched Boeing’s stock price?
War is a Racket by Major Gen Smedley Butler
During their debate tonight, the Republicans were doing a lot of chest thumping about the deficit, and how they would cut wasteful government spending. Perhaps some brave journo will ask them about the Osprey.
Well, it was PA’s own Curt Weldon’s baby, since the Boeing plant was in his Delco district. Maybe now that Curt is gone, gone, gone, someone can pull the plug on the Osprey.
What they did with the Osprey was to spread around the parts manufacturing in several key congressional districts, so the constituency would be wider and more powerful. The Osprey is a textbook case of pork barrel politics; I don’t think they’ll ever get rid of it. Maybe it should be called the “Albatross.”
Skimmed an article in a recent national mag about the Osprey and its deployment as a troop insertion vehicle - it has no forward firing armament and the only weapon it carries is a single hand aimed .30 caliber machine gun firing out of the rear of the cargo bay - and it cannot be used unless the rear ramp is down. This machine is going to be the death of a bunch more of our Marines because the damn aircraft(?) can’t protect itself in battlefield conditions.
The other great feature is the fact that it can’t auto-rotate upon engine failure as a helicopter can. IE: if an engine suffers battle damage, it will fall out of the air like a rock and kill all on board. The entire Osprey is a national disgrace.