This is a twenty year old story. The V-22 has been and a will continue to be suspect as long as the USMC continues to champion it without regard for the truth. Technology has been pushed to and past the limits of reasonableness. Fatal accidents aside, the V-22 has never clearly met most of its design goals. Clear technical issues have been side stepped in favor of a public relations push. As a former Marine, Test Pilot and an H-53 pilot, I have witnessed this first hand over the past twenty years. Gen Blot blocked a long range demonstration flight of a CH-53E in the 1990’s stating that he would not allow the CH-53E demonstate anything that may comprise or make the V-22 look bad. The V-22 has always been compared to the CH-46. With 12,300 ESHP and a gross weight approaching 60,000 the V-22 actually exceeds the gross weight of the CH-53D and approaches that of the CH-53E. Comparing the V-22 to the CH-53 line would have closed the gap and made the program less viable if not totally unworthy. I invite Nick Lappos, Shawn Coyle and anyone else with real perspectives on the technical issues that have been unreported to date and enter into a real discussion of topics (i.e. disc loading, power loading, OEI power loading, actual conversion envelope, HV development ….) concerning the V-22.
