I recall the early '90s when C17 was called Buddha. We called it that because it was big & fat, sat around & did nothing, yet eveyrone worshipped it. I was there when they created missions for it so it would have something to do. I recall hearing all of the issues of airdrop (can't drop personnel), short field work (wasn't meeting design spec), etc.
It has proven to be a more capable aircraft than anyone ever dreamed & still isn't being flown to its potential (at least by USAF). It also still has some problems.
The DT&E and OT&E phase of any new aircraft is designed to find flaws so they can be fixed prior to production or deployment. With public access to information, the Internet, mass media, etc. - every flaw is public knowledge and typically latched onto by the nay-sayers & scare-mongerers very quickly these days. Most of these people have an agenda, or at least a bias.
That doesn't mean we produce perfect planes, rather, we have a deliberate process to discover flaws so we might fix them earlier rather than later.
The Osprey is one of the few radical departures from traditional aviation design - as such, it's taken longer to develop. It still has flaws.
Most of the "limitations" on the Osprey or "things it can't do" are history at this point as they stem from early DT&E programs. One of my favorites is that you can't fastrope out of an Osprey. Pure & utter BS - the Osprey has always been able to fastrope troops from the tail - during DT&E they attempted to see if it was feasible out the side door - it's not. This gets twisted by people with an agenda to - "you can't fastrope out of it"
In many respects, you have to un-learn aspects of both rotary & fixed wing employment to appreciate the Osprey. It really is a new category/class of aircraft.
I'm still waiting on the C-model though!
