We’re working the details now, but apparently a loose bolt was found in an area near the rotors on deployed MV-22 Ospreys which was worrying enough to Red Stripe the entire fleet.
Colin’s banging out all the information he could get in a piece for DoD Buzz, but for now, that’s what I’ve got.
Be sure to check over at the Buzz for more information in a few minutes.
UPDATE:All 84 Ospreys were temporarily grounded following the discovery of loose bolts in a V-22 in Iraq.
“This is a temporary grounding bulletin issued strictly as a precautionary measure,” NavAir spokesman Mike Welding said Tuesday evening. “If one of those came lose in flight, the worst case scenario you would lose control of the affected prop rotor,” he said, adding that no planes had been affected in flight. “Our priority first and foremost is safety.”
Four planes have had problems with the bolts, which help control the rotors. Two of those are back in the air, Welding said. The repairs take two days, he said.
All the affected planes are in Iraq, he said, adding that the cause of the loose bolts is not entirely clear yet and investigations are proceeding to figure out why they came loose.
The Marines expect the “red stripe” notice “to have a minimal impact on operations,” said Maj. Eric Dent, a Marine spokesman in Washington.
– Christian
Geez.
Something that happens more often on more aircraft than is ever talked about outside maintainer circles, and a fleet gets grounded before a cursory evaluation can even be properly conducted.
You have to wonder how much of this kind of reaction comes from the acute awareness that there are legions of detractors looking to do in the bird you are trying to field.
One is going to crash again someday as with ANY aircraft. The Marines are in a race against Fate (the Hunter) and from my POV the world’s voyeurs seem to be pulling for Fate.
God Bless the USMC for sticking to principles and mission over politics and fielding the Osprey. I just wish they didn’t have to perform their jobs under the political microscope. They gotta’ feel like the US National Soccer Team playing Mexico in LA.
Ummmmmmmm… lockwire?
Sorry,
In my last post, I wasn’t clear enough on the front end. Here’s a pen-and-ink ‘Rev A’ of the first paragraph that makes more sense:
Something that happens more often on more aircraft than is ever talked about outside maintainer circles (like an AF Time Compliance Tehnical Order, aka TCTO, or as in this case a Navy/Marine “Red Stripe”), and a fleet gets LABLED “grounded” before a cursory evaluation OF THE FLEET CONDITION can even be properly conducted.
Hope that makes it less “WTFO?”
The objective of the Osprey program is to get the entire fleet of 138 into service before any of them are tested in combat. Since the video of an osprey barrel rolling into the ground will be the procurement program
It’s good that the loose bolt was discovered and nothing happened. It’s great that they had the fleet stopped and checked out. It sucks that things like this happen but it’s good that it is actually a non-event. We can deal with loose bolts here and there as long as things like this are kept to a minimum. Sure beats reading about a Sikorsky crashing in the sea killing many after the transmission mount failure last week.
Yep, don’t buy anything new for the “Helo Hobos.” Just slap a fresh coat on paint on the Phrog and velcro some new black boxes to the dash like the old days. You wanna see some real carnage? Just fly a div of Phrogs into a modern hot LZ.
Here’s some news for you crusty old Marine detractors. We’re smarter than you are. We don’t need to stay locked in the 60s with you and your 90 kt brain and steam gauges. Four generations of TacAir since then, but let’s not try anything new in rotary wing, we don’t “deserve it.”
US Marine Corps aviation branch plans to invest in fighter jets, helicopters, transports and UAVs
“First, he says, a wave of recent news reports have confused the USMC’s policy about a purported re-engining programme for the Rolls-Royce 1107C-powered Bell Boeing MV-22.
It is true that the 1107C’s reliability has fallen short of original expectations, says Trautman, but a power-by-the-hour deal signed several years ago ensures that the USMC has all the engines it needs at a predetermined cost.
The real issue being debated is not re-engining, but repricing the maintenance deal with R-R, which has suffered financially due to the 1107C’s reliability problems, he says.
The USMC acknowledges it needs to pay R-R a higher price to compensate for the 1107C’s lower reliability levels. The USMC says it is currently seeing an “on-wing” time of around 450h for the engine.”
Check out flightglobal, it’s Osprey day there.
http://www.flightglobal.com/home/default.aspx
Move along, nothing to see here…
..this time.
Any Osprey optimist want to place odds on one of these “minor problems” killing someone?
OH shiz.…a f22 has crashed in cali
ITs a new system.…it has kinks.…like alot of new systems. IF our first helicopters had killed there pilots a few times or had maintanence problems would it have been better for the US to say oh well f’it to dangerous helicopters…what a stupid idea…
Red stripes happen all the time in every military aircraft. They usually have nothing to do with the aircraft itself, but something like a bad lot of replacement parts, a procedure in a manual revealed to be faulty, etc. This is a non-event.
I’m one of those who may be flying the V-22 to a “hot” zone. I have no reservations about it. It is the most capable rotorcraft in the world, bar none.
Looks like Ospreys may have a design problem.
“Fifth V-22 with loose bolts points to design problem“
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/03/26/324440/fifth-v-22-with-loose-bolts-points-to-design-problem.html
I wondered where that bolt went?
Oblat says “The objective of the Osprey program is to get the entire fleet of 138 into service before any of them are tested in combat.“
I guess he hasn’t heard that the problems werediscovered on four Ospreys operated out of Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, by Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 266.
In other words, the Osprey is already in the combat zone, and has been there since VMM-263 first deployed to Iraq with Ospreys in September 2007… a year and a half ago!
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