OK, well, here are some of my thoughts for people that are interested. It was really quite interesting to read the 2 page article posted recently about settling with power (or the Vortex ring state, as others may call it) that may have contributed to the Crash of the V22 operated by the US MArine Corps earlier this year. Well, to keep a long discussion short, I do not agree that it should be blamed on a design fault or the basic concept. Considering the effort that has been made by both, the U.S. military and Bell/ Boeing I would say that it is an excellent concept. The tiltrotor as in the V22 or the B609 will not replace the helicopter, nor will it replace the airplane. But it will fill a new market which may not be possible to be satisfied by any conventional aircraft. And there are allready many positive aspects before the aircraft is even out with the operators.
To come back to the original article, I believe that there have been some controversial results and maybe there will never be a definite conclusion to the accident. It does look however that there is nothing wrong with the aircraft. That is not up to me do discuss. I would like to mention though that it probably would be much more appropriate to target the training and qualification programs for the aircrew on the V22. Due to it's high cost and tremendous pressure on the operational status of the aircraft, I personally believe that the training requirements are not satisfactory enough for the operations conducted. After all it is a brandnew design and aspect of aviation. Just imagine yourself as a 100 hr. wonder trying to do an operational insertion of troops using night vision googles in an aircraft you may not feel quite comfortable with yet. I would say, well, you are asking for trouble. But what it comes down to is that it really couldn't be blamed on the aircraft or a design fault on it. I do agree that there are some sysytems which I personally think could be implemented to improve the safety of the aircraft. But I guess that the designers would sure have thoguth about it. Anyway, any airplane, if you misshandle it, can be stalled. Any helicopter, if you misshandle it, can enter the Vortex ring state. What it comes down to is pilot tarinig, recognition and avoidance of these flight conditions. I also do not necessarily agree with the fact that flying out of it is the only way to recover from the above condition. Yes, it is so according to the text book, but anybody who has done some slinging or other operations involving a lot of OGE hovering will know that there is other ways around it.
Anyway, I think to put a moral to the story,
the Tiltrotor concept is very new and the media and people have always tried to find fault with new things. Just remember the millennium bug- the world was gonna break down- did it? Well, it wasn't that bad after all.
Modern aircraft design is very, very advanced and especially on the B609 there is tremendous effort being made to counteract and correct problems before the aircraft will come out. The B609 industry steering committee is doing a fantastic job and the input from the members involved does help to make the cost cheaper and the aircraft safer and easier to maintain for the future operators. What will happen, well, just like with the millennium bug we will not know until the aircraft is flying. The test flying so far is really going great from what I understand. The effort made by the manufacturer and industry members certainly helps a lot to predict most of the aspects.
And think back, it took more than 25 years for the Bell 212 to proof it's reliablity. So give the concept some time.
What I would like the concerned people to consider though is to maybe revise the standards of training and the requirements for the aircrew. As for the B609 I do believe this issue may not be of such importance since the operational flying will maybe not be as challenging. However, the military may well be better of to, and I am sure this is done, considering the training syllabus and minimum training before going "hot".
I would appreciate any feedback on my thought and welcome anybody to challenge my view-points.