Fly only a few Ospreys, panel says
Fly only a few Ospreys, panel says
By Dawn S. Onley
GCN Staff
APRIL 20'The V-22 Osprey's tilt-rotor design poses
no real safety concerns, but the troubled aircraft has other problems that should limit its production to a bare minimum, said a four-member review panel appointed by the Pentagon.
Close scrutiny of the Osprey program began after a Dec. 11 crash killed four Marines. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will review the panel's report.
Cited among the Osprey problems were inadequate maintenance software and persistent chafing of hydraulic lines. Those were the two main causes of the December accident, according to the Marine judge advocate general [see story at
www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/3955-1.html].
Panel members, a blue-ribbon group of government and corporate executives, said the Marine Corps should continue limited Osprey production, but only after the makers correct its flaws and determine why it loses lift in helicopter mode.