So this guy Whittle is working on a book about the Osprey, eh? The untold history, eh? That ought to be good. Can't wait!
“Riding in the Osprey in Afghanistan may be safer than riding in a helicopter,” he said.
Whittle flew with a New River-based Osprey squadron in Iraq while working on his book in 2007 and said the cruising altitude averaged about 8,000 feet.
“That gets you well above the threat of small arms and rocket-propelled grenades,” he said.
Eight-thousand feet? Hmm. I've taken my "lowly" 206B up to 9,500 to take advantage of good tailwinds. I wonder how high you have to be to get out of range of "small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades?" Can an H-53 even go that high?
The other day, I had put my helicopter away after a flight and was driving home. I got to thinking about the V-22. Not the V-22 of today, but the V-22 of twenty years from now. I'm not a moron, I'm not crazy, and I'm not on drugs. But I've been a helicopter pilot all my life, and know a thing or two about how rotors work. And among a very few others, I've been a big critic of the tilt-rotor. So I got to wondering what will happen? Will the Osprey turn out to be a huge success, or a big failure? Will I look like more of a complete idiot than I do now? Or will I have the chance to say, "I knew it." I think I know the answer to that...but I've been wrong about stuff before.
I personally believe the tilt-rotor design has many flaws, some of which that make the V-22 an unsuitable aircraft - even more
incompletely invented (to paraphrase newsman Andy Rooney) than the helicopter. But others think it is just the neatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe they're seeing something I'm not. Time will tell, of course.
We know that, despite all of the hoopla to the contrary, Afghanistan is *not* the ideal place for the Osprey. I'm sure there are plenty of generals in the Pentagon who are holding their breath and crossing their fingers right now, hoping nothing goes wrong. One bad accident could put the program in even more jeopardy. I've had private emails from military pilots who've told me that the Osprey was used *very* selectively in Iraq, and was deliberately kept from high-threat areas or missions. So it's not exactly a "battle-tested" design, let's be honest.
I'll be curious to read Whittle's "untold history" of the V-22, especially since it is not completely written yet. Maybe that's why the publication date is so far off. Afghanistan could very well be
do-or-die for the Osprey.