MV-​​22 Engine Problems in Anbar

The Bell Helicopter-​​Boeing team that builds the V-​​22 Osprey will hold a press con­fer­ence Tuesday at the Farnborough Air Show with a num­ber of senior Marine corps offi­cers play­ing the star­ring roles, pre­sum­ably to extol the virtues of the V-​​22 and its per­for­mance in Iraq.

They might not want to vol­un­teer the fol­low­ing recent inci­dent so we’ll do it for them. It just so hap­pens that on June 21 a Marine V-​​22 crew had a seri­ous engine prob­lem forced the crew to quickly find a place to land. 

 An inter­nal Marine mem­o­ran­dum sent to us by a source describes
the prob­lem delicately.

WHILE IN FLIGHT, PILOTS NOTICED THAT THE R/​H ENGINE TORQUE WOULD NOT GO ABOVE 66 PERCENT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO HOLD ALTITUDE, AND HAD TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN THE FIELD. AFTER REPLACEMENT OF THE ENGINE, A BOROSCOPE INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED TO INSPECT THE ENGINE INTERNALLY. IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT COMPRESSOR BLADES WERE DAMAGED FROM POSSIBLE FOD INGESTION. A BOROSCOPE INSPECTION OF THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER SHOWED THAT THE LINER HAD BROKEN
INTO PIECES. THESE PIECES ENTERED INTO THE GAS GENERATOR, CAUSING SIGNIFICANT
DAMAGE.

INTERNAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE CAUSED FOR A
LOSS OF ALTITUDE CONTROL. THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO STABILIZE OR HOLD AN ALTITUDE, AND WAS FORCED TO LAND. THIS COULD BE FATAL TO PERSONNEL ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT, AND CAUSE DETRIMENTAL DAMAGE TO THE AIRCRAFT. THE MISSION WAS ABORTED DUE TO THE FAILURE.

In other words, the engine was break­ing up. Not a good thing. But whats more inter­est­ing is the indi­ca­tion that the trou­bled engine was still putting out con­sid­er­able thrust, but the air­craft couldnt main­tain alti­tude. The V-​​22 is sup­posed to be able to fly at least some dis­tance and land on just one engine, but in this case it was unable to hold alti­tude while still get­ting sig­nif­i­cant power from the dam­aged engine. 

 We asked the Marines for com­ment on this inci­dent and this
is what they said:

An MV-​​22 Osprey exe­cuted a pre­cau­tion­ary land­ing June 21 in al Anbar province due to mechan­i­cal prob­lems. Shortly after depart­ing a for­ward oper­at­ing base, engine prob­lems prompted the crew to land the aircraft.

No per­sonal injury or dam­age to the air­craft was sus­tained.  The air­craft was repaired onsite and flew back to Al Asad Air Base with­out inci­dent. Hostile fire was not involved.

The cause of the mechan­i­cal prob­lem is cur­rently being investigated. 

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 is cur­rently in their third month of deploy­ment here at Al Asad Air Base.  This is the first inci­dent of its kind involv­ing the MV-​​22 Osprey in Iraq.

The air­craft con­tin­ues to com­plete its mis­sion as designed and prove its value as an essen­tial asset to the Marine Corps’ mis­sion in Iraq.

“This envi­ron­ment is chal­leng­ing for every air­craft
here in Iraq,“
said Lt. Col. Karsten Heckl, com­mand­ing offi­cer, VMM-​​162.  “The
main­te­nance Marines of VMM-​​162 have done an out­stand­ing job keep­ing the Osprey in the fight through
pre­ven­ta­tive and rou­tine maintenance.”

We should point out a cou­ple of things. One, it may have been the first pre­cau­tion­ary (can you say emer­gency) land­ing due to an engine fail­ure, there have been a num­ber of inci­dents of rapid, unsched­uled stops due to failed gear­box oil cool­ing sys­tems, as reported in March by the Star-​​Telegram.

Second, the Marines have acknowl­edged pub­licly that they’re wear­ing out V-​​22 engines far faster than any­one expected, both in the desert sands of Iraq and the far milder climes of the US.

– Bob Cox

July 14th, 2008 | Grand Ole Osprey | 395270 Comments »http://defensetech.org/2008/07/14/mv-22-engine-problems-in-anbar/MV-22+Engine+Problems+in+Anbar2008-07-14+14%3A14%3A45Ward You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.