

Bell-Boeing's MV-22 Osprey heads to Iraq









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RE: biggest waste of taxpayer's money EVER
By Jafo79 on 4/16/2007 11:45:17 PM , Rating: 2
No you are able to fly just as you would when the engine is running albeit towards the ground instead of away from it.ROFL Seriously though see here::

RE: biggest waste of taxpayer's money EVER
By masher2 (blog) on 4/17/2007 7:31:29 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not a helicopter pilot, but I do know that autorotation is not a 'safe' procedure...there is a range of airspeed/altitude combinations for which autorotation is very dangerous if not impossible. I believe that some 50% of the helicopters which attempted emergency autorotations in the Vietnam war resulted in fatalities...and I've read of several commercial autorotative attempts which ended in fatalities.

So the Osprey is vulnerable in the same regime a helicopter is-- low airspeed and altitude. Still, it seems safer than a single-engine helo, even if somewhat less so than a twin-engine one.

RE: biggest waste of taxpayer's money EVER
By Jafo79 on 4/17/2007 9:54:36 PM , Rating: 2

Wrong. Autorotation IS safe in fact we practice it all the time, lower the collective full down, roll the throttle to idle to disengage the engine from the main rotor,enter a steady glide @65-70 KIAS (knots indicated airspeed)
You would be amazed how smooth it is. Are there mistakes that can kill you? Of course but when done properly an autorotation landing is as safe and smooth as a normal powered landing. You are refering to the Height/Velocity diagram which is also known as the dead man's curve. These are airspeed/altitude combinations to avoid because the lack of energy available to autorotate. Kinetic energy is stored in rotor rpm and airspeed and potential energy is stored in altitude, you can trade back and forth but if your Low on both (low altitude low airspeed) you decrease the survivablity. That is why we follow the curve and stay out of the shaded area. Read more about it here:

RE: biggest waste of taxpayer's money EVER
By Jafo79 on 4/17/2007 9:56:55 PM , Rating: 2
1 important fact I left out. We simulate engine failure and practice autorotations from 500ft AGL (above ground level)

RE: biggest waste of taxpayer's money EVER
By masher2 (blog) on 4/18/2007 12:26:52 AM , Rating: 2
> "Autorotation IS safe..."

Then why do so many people die when attempting it in real life? A quick web search finds dozens of fatal and serious helo crashes in which the pilot tried, but was unable to pull off a successful autorotate.

> "We simulate engine failure and practice autorotations from 500ft"

As I'm sure you know, its easy to autorotate when you're prepared for it, have sufficient altitude and rotor energy, and no complicating factors. But in the real world, its a very risky procedure.

As for the 500 foot floor, the Osprey has a 1600 foot one instead. I'm not really seeing a huge difference here. By your logic that the LZ is far more dangerous than the trip to it, then surely the last 500 feet is most dangerous of all...and under that floor, neither an Osprey nor a helo is going to have much chance.

By Jafo79 on 4/18/2007 2:55:27 AM , Rating: 2
yes dozens over the past several years, do you realize on avg 109 people are killed in the USA everyday driving cars The answer is human error. Does that make the car that you drive unsafe?

Look at that picture, the v22 will be in helicopter mode for the entire duration of the flight now if something happens, system failure, fire in flight, enemy fire, you name it that thing has already demonstrated that it will not be able to autorotate from that configuration. a Ch47D or F model would certainly be able to auto under those conditions.


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