A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey lands at Hurlburt Field, Florida (USA), on 2 April 2006 on its way to an air show at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Wikipedia
Are The Marines Faking The Reliability Record of Their $54 Billion Superplane? -- Dan Lamothe, Killer Apps/Foreign Policy
When Marines landed an MV-22B Osprey in an open field at the Dare County Bombing Range in North Carolina in June, it looked like a routine mission. But a gaffe was made: The Osprey sparked a grassfire and was left parked on it. Initially, Marine Corps officials said the damage was minor. Not quite: the fire burnt the fuselage, leaving it a $79.3 million total loss, according to data released by the Naval Safety Center. Parts were later recovered for use on other aircraft, but that Osprey never flew again, Foreign Policy has learned.
The incident is emblematic of the struggles the Marine Corps faces with the revolutionary tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies with the range and speed of an airplane. While the military continues to add new missions for the Osprey abroad and has interest in selling it to allies, the program remains dogged by its deadly history and bad news -- much of it self-inflicted. The upshot: While the aircraft has found a variety of success on the battlefield, Marine Corps officials are still defending its safety and reliability record from skeptics. And not without reason: A couple of the Osprey accidents that the Marines swore were no big deal turn out to be very big indeed.
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My Comment: Another great post from Dan Lamonthe.
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