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"Osprey Fire - Days Before Big Contract Awarded"
STARTELEGRAM.com
Sky Talk April 17, 2008 Osprey Fire Days Before Big Contract Awarded Whoops, this wasn't reported by the Marines or Bell/Boeing last month when they were counting down the days to the Pentagon finally awarding a five-year, $10.4 billion contract for 167 new V-22 Ospreys. Just two weeks prior to that award, yet another Osprey operated by Marines in North Carolina suffered an engine nacelle fire, a recurring problem. The good folks at Amarillo.com backed into the story a few days ago with a nice story on a local Marine who had to be hospitalized for inhaling too much fire suppressant while extinguishing the blaze. No word yet on the degree of damage to the aircraft, which was apparently on ground at the time preparing to take off. A similar fire a few months ago, that broke out in flight and required an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere, essentially destroyed the engine nacelle -- the compartment on the end of the wing that contains the jet turbine engine* -- and left the wing itself in very bad shape, according to both Marine and Bell sources. The Marines have had a number of these fires over the last couple of years but fortunately none have caused* a crash. No word on whether there have been any fires involving V-22s in Iraq, which were the first to have a nacelle fire prevention fix installed. What happens is hydraulic and other flammable fluids leak inside the nacelle and then get ignited by hot engine components. Marine Corps public relations folks were busy through the winter months touting the successful debut of the long sought V-22 Osprey in Iraq and what a wonderful job it was doing carrying laundry and mail, generals and VIPs, and the occasional* batch of Marines or Iraqi troops around Iraq. Osprey fan Christian Lowe at Defense Tech posted his own V-22 in action video online earlier this week. The long awaited Iraq deployment was effectively a chance to show the Osprey could make good on all of the many feats Bell, Boeing and the Marines have promised it could deliver and make sure the even longer awaited big contract was awarded. The Marines have acknowledged that the Osprey's reliability in Iraq (and stateside) continues to be less than desired and now have said the aircraft's engines are wearing way too fast. Then this week we learned of another significant problem that has popped up in Iraq. It seems that the oil cooling system that supplies both a generator and one of the tilt-rotor gearboxes has a nasty tendency to go bad, allowing temperatures to rise to levels that could damage the gear box components. On four occasions V-22s at forward bases were grounded until repairs could be made. Generators aboard the aircraft had a problem with its oil cooling system. An internal Marine memorandum says it has been very fortunate that the cooling system hasn't failed in flight and forced a flight crew to make an emergency landing in hostile territory. The memo says the oil cooling system is lasting just 25 percent of its expected life. |
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