Jim
Thanks for those bits of information. I saw the V22 first when I was on duty
at the Fairford Air Show around 5 years ago; I had known about it for decades,
of course, but not seen it. And I was astounded at the size of the
propellers/rotors. It just does not look right, and it seems that it's in
service because a very powerful group was behind it, and now perhaps they
cannot pull back.
Mind you, that was the show in which a blasted Typhoon pilot nearly lost it on
a low-speed, gear-down barrel roll with a wind pushing him towards the crowd.
He tried to turn too hard as he exited the barrel and only the smart lighting
of the burners got him away from the runway, about 5 ft below him.
I really don't want to watch another crash at an airshow. I saw a fighter
(Lightning?) carve into the crowd at an airshow as a small boy; and when Gary
Edwards, formerly of the List, came over the the UK some years ago we went to
Duxford and saw a Fairey Firefly crash from an ill-advised barrel roll.
I seem to have digressed, again . . .
Chris
On 24 Jun 2012, at 18:15, Jim Nichols wrote:
> I've been following with interest the latest accidents with the Osprey. As
> a young 2nd Lieutenant assigned to the Wright-Patterson AFB Wind Tunnel
> Branch, I conducted the first wind tunnel tests of Bell's entry in a USAF
> competition for advanced vertical lift machines. This was in 1952. There
> were also entries from McDonnell and Sikorsky. This Bell Convertiplane,
> designed by the late Bob Lichton, was the forerunner of the Osprey. The
> complexities of such an aircraft were seen early on, so it is no surprise to
> me that it took over half a century to get them into service. And the
> complexities still haunt them.
--
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