I’m not sure if anyone else noticed this, but I think it’s pretty significant in one way or another.
So, if you take a look at the pictures and video footage of Barack Obama’s trip to Amman, Jordan, those of you who are sensitive to this sort of thing might notice something strange about the aircraft he was walking out of. For me, the tip off was the sound the plane was making.
Having spent some time with the squadron, something in my brain told me it wasn’t a C-130 and it wasn’t a 53 or a 47. “But surely,” my consciousness told me, “they wouldn’t risk the safety of a presidential candidate on something most ‘experts’ say is so dangerous…”
Then I pulled out my trusty TiVo remote and confirmed my suspicions.
Obama flew from Iraq to Amman on an MV-22 Osprey from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Transport squadron 162 — the newest Osprey squadron to deploy to Iraq.
I’m kicking over some rocks as we speak to see if this was by happenstance or by design. Was the Corps strategically placing a potential president in the Osprey to wow him into continued support for the pricey assault support plane?
I’d also be interested to know a bit about the flight plan, since Obama spent his entire day-long trip to Iraq in the Green Zone, which the Osprey can’t land in (LZ Washington being too tight for the wide-winged tiltrotor). So he must have flown out of BIAP…by why not in a C-130?
Curiouser and curiouser…But still, kind of a cool trip for the Osprey anyway. And having logged many hours in one myself, I am sure Obama and his entourage were duly impressed with its performance.
[Both photos from the Associated Press via Yahoo News]
– Christian
_Of course_ they’d put him in something dangerous if it meant funding. Able Upshur and Thomas Gilmer discovered that to their cost in 1844.
Abel, not Able.
I noticed it right away too last night on the news. Previous posts make me think the security advantage of flying higher and faster than a conventional helicopter without sacrificing VTOL is what made the decision “logical”, at least on the surface.
Do you think they let Obama shoot the machine gun out the back on the trip over to Jordan? You know a low level pass over some poor sheep and
Thinking the exact same thing when I saw the pictures in the news — they had Obama on the tarmac and the Osprey in the background, and my mind went.. “oh no, they did not…” So I guess there are others than just senators campaigning these days. “See, we trust our stuff so much we would even fly senators in it!” Flying him out in that instead of a C-130 MUST have been a concious decision to show it of, nothing routine nor even logical about it otherwise.
The guy flew in an Osprey?
He’s got more guts than I thought.
“See, we trust our stuff so much we would even fly senators in it!“
Messiahs too, evidently.
Check out that nifty little IRM jammer on the side of that thing.. most ch46 don’t have em. People need to get a clue. Look at how far he flew. What is safer on an A to B safe to safe rout were vertically landing is needed? Obviously the high and fast Mv-22.
He looks good… but the plane looks even better.
Where’s a catastrophic rotor failure when we need one