FLUG REVUE June 2005: MV-22 Osprey in operational tests

June 2005

MV-22 OSPREY IN CRUCIAL TESTS

By Karl Schwarz

First the responsible programme director in the Pentagon gave his approval on 24 February and then a month later the Squadron Commander, Colonel Glenn Waters, also gave the all clear. On 28 March 2005, Marine Tiltrotor Test and Evaluation Squadron 22 (VMX-22) began the critical operational testing of the Bell/Boeing MV-22 in New River, North Carolina. Almost immediately there was a scare when a hydraulic leak occurred during the flight preparations of Osprey no. 53, causing a fire in the engine nacelle, although this did not cause any major damage.

MV-22 Osprey

Such problems are making it difficult for the Marine Corps and the manufacturers to finally shift the revolutionary tiltrotor aircraft out of the negative headlines. Today, as the Osprey starts its OT-IIG test phase (operational evaluation = Opeval), it is no further down the road than it was in the spring of 2000 before two fatal crashes threw into question the future of this programme which has been running since 1983.

After thorough investigations and an 18 month grounding order, the long haul back to restoring confidence in the safety, performance and reliability of the Osprey resumed on 18 May 2002. “The V-22 flight test programme is one of the hardest, most thorough and systematic in the history of aviation,” said Mike Tkach, the long-standing Bell/Boeing programme director.

Some 3,000 flight hours were necessary to prepare the Marine Corps' MV-22's for the operational tests, which were actually supposed to begin in January (for details see box). Because of the delay, which ultimately was caused by defective chrome coatings in the transmission, VMX-22 and the eight available Ospreys now had only three months to the end of June to work their way through the planned 400 to 500 flying hours.

After the first tests to demonstrate key performance parameters in New River, the MV-22B's are predominantly flying from Yuma and China Lake in the west of the USA. There they face a series of realistic operational scenarios intended to examine the capabilities of the Osprey in air dropping marines and transporting loads. Of particular interest are its survivability using various tactics in a hostile environment and its cooperation with other units.

Two of the tiltrotor transporters are to be taken to Bridgeport for environmental compatibility testing. Finally the Osprey will then have to prove itself during two weeks of mission operations performed from a helicopter carrier.

What the V-22 needs is an unconditional “effective and suitable” assessment, so that the Pentagon can give the go-ahead, probably in November, to full serial production. So far Bell and Boeing have been building only 11 tiltrotor aircraft per year under low rate initial production (LRIP) contracts. This is the minimum level required to at least to some extent run production on a financially viable basis, although, with procurement costs of $1.203 billion (Euro 931 million) in the budget year 2004 there can actually be no question of this.

But a rapid ramp-up of production rates is not in prospect. This is likely to make cost reductions even more difficult to achieve. According to Boeing, the price of a V-22 today is around $72 million (Euro 56 million). “That is too expensive for high unit numbers, everyone agrees on that,” says the company. “The aim of our initiative,” said programme director Mike Tkach at the beginning of the year, “is to reduce costs to a level such that our customers can afford to purchase the V-22 in the quantities that they require.”

Th plan is to get the unit price down to $58 million (Euro 45 million) by the budget year 2010. To this end, for example, in the 2003 budget year about $56 million (Euro 43 million) was invested in 26 different technical changes, rationalisation of production and other measures. Another $250 million (Euro 193 million) is expected to follow over the next few years in order to achieve the goal. It goes without saying that a production order for a relatively large number of units spread over several years would help a lot.

The Marine Corps' requirement currently stands at 360 MV-22B's to replace the CH-46. The first squadron is expected to attain combat readiness in the autumn of 2006. On top of this there are expected to be a further 48 Ospreys for the US Navy for roles such as logistics transport, tanker and search and rescue (SAR).

Another customer is the Special Operations Command of the US Air Force, which wants to purchase 50 CV-22B's for SAR services and the air-dropping of special commandos. Three CV-22B's are currently undergoing testing at Edwards Air Force Base. Formal operational testing with this version is scheduled for the summer of 2006, although there is currently a slippage of six months compared with the plan. Here too there remains plenty of work for proponents of the Osprey to do.

The test programme after the crashes

After two fatal crashes on 8 April and 11 December 2000, the Osprey programme hung in the balance. It was not until December 2001 that the Pentagon confirmed that it could resume. Although production (final assembly in Amarillo, Texas) continued with minimal unit numbers, the V-22 remained grounded until 29 May 2002.

After that, testing advanced only slowly due to the lack of modified aircraft (changes to the hydraulic lines and engine nacelles, new software). 100 flying hours were achieved by 8 November. 25 November then saw the start of the extremely important approach tests with high sink rate, aimed at gathering data on the “vortex ring state”, during which a sudden loss of lift occurs on the rotor. If this occurs only on one side, it is very dangerous for the Osprey, as the April 2000 crash had demonstrated.

On 14 January 2003, the MV-22 landed back on a helicopter carrier for the first time, in this case on USS Iwo Jima. On the approach to the small decks, the Osprey had exhibited undesirable tendencies such as pitch up and sideslip. In the stationary position, unpleasant rolling motions had occurred. All this was supposed to be ironed out by new software.

In February 2003, parachutists were air dropped above the training areas of Fort Bragg in North Carolina before a two-week grounding order was imposed on 6 March so that defective hydraulic lines could be replaced. Shortly before that the CV-22 in Edwards had performed the first radar-supported terrain following flights. 500 flying hours were notched up on 30 May 2003.

Then in the middle of July the second CV-22 returned to the air in Edwards. On 20 August 2003 when the first production MV-22 of Block A standard arrived in Patuxent River, the number of flying Ospreys rose to nine. One of these (no. 24) headed off to Shearwater near Halifax in Canada on 7 November to undergo de-icing testing until April 2004. Meanwhile another ship test programme, this time on USS Bataan (LHD 5), was completed on 23 November 2003. Shortly after that the Integrated Test Team recorded the 1000th flying hour.

The first air refuelling trials to be carried out under the new test programme took place on 22 March 2004. In the course of these trials, Osprey no. 22 docked onto the drogue behind a KC-130F Hercules with its 3.35m long refuelling probe. Meanwhile the two CV-22B's in Edwards attempted low-level flying in formation for the first time on 19 April, so as to exclude the possibility of interference to their radars. Only a few days later, on 22 April, the 2,000 flying hour mark was reached.

Further ship trials on board the Iwo Jima followed in June, this time including heavy landings on deck positions 5 and 6. The results of these tests were apparently a lot better. At the beginning of July the test team completed a seven-week operational assessment (OT-IIF). One of the tests included in this involved the transportation of a 155mm howitzer over a distance of 125km, a lot further than was strictly required.

Four of VMX-22's MV-22's moved to Nellis AFB in Nevada in the autumn to perform landings in a desert environment. The problem examined here is “brown-out” when the aerodynamically highly loaded rotors throw up a lot of dust on the final approach.

One Osprey returned to Shearwater in November 2004, where it sustained damage to a rotor blade as a result of ice breaking off. Meanwhile on 11 November yet another 10-day test phase began on board USS Wasp. As well as take-offs and landings, maintenance trials below deck were also carried out. Squadron pilots of VMX-22 practised between 7 and 12 December on USS Kearsage.

From FLUG REVUE 6/2005

Last updated 13 May 2005

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