Although many details about its operations in Afghanistan and "other countries" are not much public, the fact is that the people using it, just love it.
Since this is the first kind of aircraft of a new class, I am sure there are is a lot of things to improve and learn, but I am sure that we are going to see a lot of Tiltrotors in short future in the military and in the civilian world.
For those of us flying maritime SAR, having such a platfform, with that range, speed and capabilities would be a dream and honestly if the hover perfomance and maneurability are like the one you can appreciate on the videos, I would trade my AW139 or the S-92 or the EC225 by such aircraft riight away.
I am wonder how long it will take to see US Coast Guard Ospreys.
And although the AW609 is a little bit small for my taste, it is expected to get its civilian certification shortly.
Last edited by Furia; 13th Aug 2011 at 20:29.