"First Ospreys Land In Iraq; One Arrives After 2 Setbacks"

Philadelphia Inquirer
October 9, 2007

First Ospreys Land In Iraq; One Arrives After 2 Setbacks

By Jay Price, McClatchy Newspapers

BAGHDAD-- The V-22 Osprey has arrived in a combat zone for the first
time.

It was an epic trip for the tilt-rotor plane, one that took more than
25 years of development and cost 30 lives and $20 billion. Even the
last short hop - from an aircraft carrier into Iraq - went awry, U.S.
military officials said yesterday.

A malfunction forced one of the 10 Ospreys that were deployed to land
in Jordan on Thursday. The Marines flew parts to it from Iraq and
repaired it.
After it took off again Saturday, the problem recurred, and it had to
turn back and land in Jordan a second time, said Maj. Jeff Pool, a
U.S. military spokesman in western Iraq. The Osprey finally was
repaired and arrived at Asad air base in western Iraq late Sunday
afternoon.

Maj. Eric Dent, an Osprey spokesman at Marine headquarters in
Washington, declined to identify the problem.

"The nature of the malfunction was a minor issue, but our aircrews are
top-notch when it comes to safety," Dent said in an e-mail. "Rather
than continue, the aircrew opted to land at a predetermined divert
location and further investigate the issue."

Now the Osprey is on the world stage, and the burden of proving it is
safe and effective in combat lies with the North Carolina-based Marine
Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263, nicknamed the "Thunder Chickens." The
unit's mission will be transporting troops and cargo in western Iraq.

It will perform that mission in ways that no other military
transporters have done in combat. The Osprey - which costs $110
million each, including development costs - takes off and lands like a
helicopter but tilts its engines forward to fly like an airplane. It
is jointly produced by the Boeing Co. in Ridley Township, Delaware
County, and Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth, Texas.

Its arrival in Iraq is aviation history, said Bob Leder, a spokesman
for the Bell-Boeing partnership.

"This is a big thing - the introduction of a new type of aircraft into
combat, totally different from the way things have been done before,"
he said.

Leder said the company believed that the Osprey and the squadron would
do well but that years of criticism and heavy media attention were
putting huge pressure on the unit to perform.

The aircraft's problems have generated a gallery of vocal detractors,
who say that not only is it too expensive and too dangerous but that
it performs poorly and has become little more than an extraordinarily
expensive bus.

The Osprey made the cover of Time magazine last week in a highly
critical article that called it "A Flying Shame."

The problem with the flight into Iraq recalled one of the V-22's first
big journeys, a transatlantic flight last year to an English air show.
One Osprey suffered engine problems and had to make a precautionary
landing in Iceland.

The aircraft has had worse moments, though, including three fatal
crashes:

In 1992, seven crew members died when a tilt-rotor crashed into the
Potomac River.

In April 2000, a V-22 with 19 crew and Marine passengers aboard
crashed in Arizona, killing all.

In December 2000, a mechanical problem compounded by a software glitch
caused a crash in North Carolina that killed the crew of four.