Watching the Osprey over Quantico

[ripley16]

This morning I had the pleasure of watching this unique plane fly around the base at Quantico. If you've never seen one in flight, you're in for a treat when you do. Very interesting to see this plane maneuver, slow, speed up, land, take off and just cruise around. I'm used to seeing helicopters plow around the sky, but when the Osprey arrives it's so different. When they want to roll, this thing is really fast!. Very cool, very fast and very loud. Oh well.

[wyntrout]

Those are really awesome aircraft, but scary! They are too dependent on computers to fly and I would hate to think what would happen if there was a glitch while changing the orientation of the engines!

I've seen them in the Fort Wort-Dallas area and also flying down the river here in Jacksonville.

Wynn

[sas PM9]

This morning I had the pleasure of watching this unique plane fly around the base at Quantico. If you've never seen one in flight, you're in for a treat when you do. Very interesting to see this plane maneuver, slow, speed up, land, take off and just cruise around. I'm used to seeing helicopters plow around the sky, but when the Osprey arrives it's so different. When they want to roll this thing is really fast!. Very cool, very fast and very loud. Oh well.

Saw a similar osprey flying/easing into Hurlbert field @FWB while we were on the water yesterday. Very COOL machine.

-steve

[gb6491]

Nice photo, they visit the the Air Station here quite a bit.
Regards,
Greg

[Bawanna]

Doesn't appear to have too great of glide characteristics, imagine it drops like a rock if them engines quit but an incredible machine. It's a great picture, never seen one that close. Orville and Wilbur would be impressed with this one too.

[Sage]

I'd love to see one maybe at an air show sometime.

Has the military actually ever found a use for it?

[jimbar]

Impressive

Great shot of this unusual craft. I've never seen one in person. There are a few aircraft that are really impressive to see, this is one of them.The others that I've seen in person are the Harrier jet, and the now permanently grounded Concorde.
Both of those will make your mouth drop, and your ears hurt. I saw the last two at an air show in Texas in the 80's, got to go onboard for a tour of the Concorde. Wow, what a plane! There were tickets being sold for a ride on the SST, but I missed out. That oppurtunity is gone forever,..sure wish I could have made it.

[getsome]

Great picture there ripley, thanks for posting it...I'm not sure I would want to fly in ship #13 with all the troubles the Osprey has had in the past though...It's hard to believe the thing can maintain enough lift to support it's heavy airframe and cargo load in forward flight with those stubby short little wings...

Somehow to me all helicopters seem like dangerous machines that are specifically designed and engineered to shake themselves to pieces...Any aircraft whose wings travel 1000 times faster than the main fuselage just doesn't seem like a good idea to me...

[gb6491]

I'd love to see one maybe at an air show sometime.

Has the military actually ever found a use for it?

For some time now, the Marine Corps has been standing down HMM squadrons, replacing their CH46 Sea Knights with the MV-22, and recommissioning the squadrons with the VMM designation . They provide medium-lift capability for assault support missions (moving personnel and cargo). They've been/are operational in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Regards,
Greg

[ripley16]

Have to fess-up... the photo isn't mine. Borrowed the photo from Photobucket for dramatic effect.

There are a few aircraft that are really impressive to see, this is one of them.The others that I've seen in person are the Harrier jet, and the now permanently grounded Concorde.

If anyone gets the chance to visit the Udvar-Hazy museum in Virginia, near Dulles Airport, the effort is well worth it. World class display of aircraft.
http://airandspace.si.edu/udvarhazy/

[OldLincoln]

From the looks of that photo they must be something. How do they get them up in the air before they start the engines? Seems like those big blades should be doing something.

[LorenzoB]

....Seems like those big blades should be doing something.

Too funny! I was thinking the same thing.

[steveschu]

That old bird has been around since the 80's......how about the F-35???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc8VF...feature=relmfu

[O'Dell]

Those are really awesome aircraft, but scary! They are too dependent on computers to fly and I would hate to think what would happen if there was a glitch while changing the orientation of the engines!

I've seen them in the Fort Wort-Dallas area and also flying down the river here in Jacksonville.

Wynn

The same is true of nearly all high performance aircraft today. All our recent fighters are so unstable that they won't fly at all without the computers. They have to be that way to get the maneuverability that's required nowadays. Of course there's plenty of redundancy for safety's sake.

Cars are going the same way. On my Prius the steering, brakes, throttle, and even the gearshift lever are not directly connected, but go through a series of processors. Basically, you tell the car what you want to do and it decides how to do it. I'm told that there are 32 separate computers in the system. The Corvettes are the same to a somewhat lesser extent. When you press the accelerator, the imput goes to the central computer which checks with the traction control, yaw sensors, steering angle sensors, etc, before throttling up the engine to give you what you are asking for. It happens in a couple of micro seconds, so you never notice it not a direct connection to the engine.

[Planedude]

Yeah, redundant out the arse...
The F-35 has three computers for fight control and each one of those has three channels that it runs, each backing up the other. Last time I checked we were running about 9.1 millon lines of code and puting more in every day...

Our autos are following suit.

Some shorts of the BF-4 coming aboard the Wasp; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wOJ9JImlRs

How I see the jets, this is AA-1 the first (and only like her). The production jets were changed based on stuff we learned from the old girl. Note all the (#@$!*#) orange wire for test equipment; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRtUGnw-GJY