[MilCom] V-22 On Steroids

[MC]

When the UH-60 Blackhawk entered Army service in 1979,
there were a series of crashes and incidents involving
the spindles which hold the blades on the hub and the
stabilator.  Unanticipated design problems in all new
aircraft tend to develop after the crafts enter line
service.  Once the Army and Sikorsky worked out all
the bugs, the Blackhawk has become by far the best
cargo helicopter the Army has ever purchased.  There
were the normal design and software problems with the
V-22 which caused several high profile crashes.  But
the incident in Arizona was caused by the ego of
Marine brass putting high performance jet pilots into
the new machines instead of seasoned helicopter
pilots.  They also put jet controls in the V-22
instead of helicopter controls, which the V-22
essentially is and flys like.  The pilots got into
settling with power on their approach to the airstrip,
and instead of lowering the nose and flying out of it
(like helicopter pilots are trained to do) they
increased the throttle (which is what all jet pilots
are taught to do to get out of trouble) and they
auggered it into the ground.  They have redesigned the
controls, fixed the bugs and I agree that the V-22
will eventually become the best special ops bird ever
made available to the military.

CW4 Mark Colborn
U.S. Army (Retired) 
UH-60L IP

--- MJ Cleary <mjcleary at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> I heard that when the CH-46 first came out they were
> considered flying 
> deathtraps since they tended to come apart in the
> air. This was before my 
> time so maybe someone who was around then can
> comment on that.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve Douglass" <webbfeat at 1s.net>
> Subject: [MilCom] V-22 On Steroids
> 
> 
> > Someone in the Pentagon must be impressed by tilt
> rotor potential despite 
> > them being "flying deathtraps!";
> >
> >
> > Note: If you take a close look at the history of
> aviation you'll find many 
> > cutting-edge programs such as the F-117, B-1,
> F-111, SR-71 and others also 
> > suffered from crashes during their development,
> but as the learning curve 
> > goes up and systems evolve they have all become
> important military assets.



		
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