Source: CV-22 crash not caused by mechanical failure

[buglerbilly]

DATE:17/04/10

SOURCE:Flight International

Source: CV-22 crash not caused by mechanical failure

By Stephen Trimble

The BellBoeing CV-22 crash in Afghanistan on 8 April was not caused by a mechanical failure, according to a source familiar with preliminary findings of the US military investigation.

The fatal crash, which killed four and injured others, occurred after the pilot lost situational awareness while landing in a wadi around 1am under brown-out conditions, the source says.

The incident killed the pilot, a flight engineer, an army Ranger and an unidentified civilian.

Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), which owns the CV-22 fleet, was not immediately available to comment.

US military officials have previously stated the cause of the CV-22 crash in Afghanistan was still under investigation. Military spokesmen, however, have ruled out enemy fire as a potential cause.

The 8 August crash is the first fatal accident involving a V-22 Osprey tiltrotor since December 2000, and is the fifth fatal crash in the programme's chequered history.

In 2000, two fatal crashes within eight months caused by a combination of design flaws and mechanical failures forced military leaders to put the programme on hold for two years while contractors re-designed systems and the airframe to improve safety.

After declaring the MV-22 fleet operational in 2007, the US Marine Corps has deployed its version of the Osprey in Iraq and Afghanistan without suffering a fatal crash.

USMC officials have praised the MV-22's performance, although the service has acknowledged concerns about unexpectedly high costs to operate and maintain the unique tiltrotor fleet.

AFSOC, meanwhile, had deployed six CV-22s delivered so far to Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan before sustaining the crash.

The brown-out scenario during landing is recognized as a major safety concern for all rotorcraft operating in areas with loose sand. A recent study by the Office of the Secretary of Defense has concluded that 80% of the US millitary's 320 rotorcraft crashes during the last decade has been caused by degraded visual awareness.

[buglerbilly]

Afsoc Wrestles With CV-22 Operational Loss

Apr 21, 2010



By Robert Wall
London

The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is looking to improve the self-protection system on the CV-22 Osprey to bolster the tiltrotor’s defenses against surface-to-air missiles, even as the small community has to confront the first operational loss of one of the aircraft.

Although the Bell-Boeing V-22 has a history of accidents and technical mishaps, this one marks the first operational crash.

The CV-22, attached to the Air Force’s 8th Special Operations Sqdn. based at Hurlburt Field, Fla., went down during the night of April 8-9 around 7 mi. west of Qalat City, in Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan. The aircraft was inbound to a landing zone.

The 8th Special Operations Sqdn. is on its second combat deployment, having completed the first to Afghanistan in November.

Three military personnel died in the accident, as well as one civilian. The uniformed victims have been identified as Maj. Randell D. Voas and Senior Master Sgt. James B. Lackey. Voas was a CV-22 evaluator pilot who operated the tiltrotor since 2006; he had flown MH-53 Pave Lows and logged 160 combat flight hours. Lackey was a CV-22 evaluator flight engineer and former MH-53 flight engineer.

The other fatality was Cpl. Michael D. Jankiewicz, a Ranger with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Ft. Benning, Ga. Sixteen others were injured.

Input from the one pilot that survived will augment the crash investigation. There were no indications of hostile fire, says a Defense Dept. official, although the accident board will have to rule out that out formally.

This event marks the second CV-22 Class A accident in the past two years, and the first operational loss.

A Defense Dept. official confirms the wreckage was destroyed afterward to avoid sensitive equipment falling into enemy hands—a standard procedure for special operations aircraft losses.

The V-22 program had been plagued by accidents during development that pushed the project to the brink of cancellation. But, after a rocky recovery period, the program began to gain acceptance.

The U.S. Marine Corps, buyer of the MV-22 and the biggest backer of the program, last year was still struggling with mission reliability rates, but recently service officials said those figures had improved. The first combat deployment of the MV-22 took place in 2007, when the tiltrotor was dispatched to Iraq.

Reliability numbers have been slightly better for the Air Force Special Operations Command’s CV-22. Afsoc plans to acquire 50 of the model, which feature such avionics improvements over the Marine version as terrain-avoidance radar.

This is the fifth crash of a V-22. Two prototypes crashed during the initial days of flight testing (one in 1991, another in 1992 killing seven). And two development aircraft crashed in 2000, one killing 19, the other four military personnel on board. The latter caused a delay in production go-ahead and a program pause to address component problems. The V-22 was also upgraded to help crew avoid vortex ring state—an aerodynamic condition during which the tiltrotor loses lift when it descends too quickly through its own rotor downwash—this state was implicated in one of the losses.

The fledgling electronic warfare (EW) initiative is not a result of the CV-22 loss; it is being pursued, though, as operational experience mounts.

Under the EW program, the Pentagon wants to boost the amount of chaff and flare available to crew beyond what is now available with the ALE-47 dispenser. The goal is to allow CV-22 crew to dispense flares preemptively as they enter a threat zone. The system should be able to handle special covert flares designed to spoof surface-to-air missiles but not be visible to the human eye to avoid revealing the tiltrotor’s presence. Saab, developer of the Bol countermeasures dispenser already used by the Pentagon, plans to pursue the upgrade.

The Marines are also looking to upgrade the self-protection system on MV-22s, having identified the tiltrotor as the lead platform in the Joint Allied Threat Awareness System EW initiative to provide pilots with better awareness of threats, including small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Pentagon is vetting suppliers to participate in a foreign comparative test program of a system that is already qualified for operational use and is compatible with the ALE-47.

The initiative is only the latest in a string of actions the Pentagon has taken in the past few years to improve rotorcraft countermeasures.

Photo: USAF

[buglerbilly]

Osprey Readiness Improves; Bid On For WH



By Colin Clark Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 4:16 pm DOD Buzz

Operational readiness rates for the MV-22 are improving, Marine Corps and Boeing officials said at the Navy League’s annual conference today.

The ultimate goal is 82 percent for the aircraft once it achieves full operational capability in 2018 (note that this is a production term; it doesn’t mean that’s when the plane is ready to fly), said Marine Col. Greg Masiello, program manager. Also, Masiello dismissed the idea that the Marines or Air Force special operators avoid using the Osprey for tough missions to improve readiness rates. “There has been a lot of speculation about are we babying the aircraft. Absolutely not,” he said. Among the examples he offered: CV-22s flew from the U.S. to the North African country of Mali. a nine-and-half hour flight “straight over water. And MV-22s are deploying from a MEU and from land bases in Afghanistan, carrying combat troops and generally “performing outstandingly.”

The MEU flight managed a 72.6 percent mission capable rate. In Iraq, they came in around 68 percent. Yesterday’s mission capable report for the fleet had them managing a 69 percent mission capable rate. After finishing the public presentation he did with Gene Cunningham, Boeing VP for the V-22, Masiello took the straight Marine approach with me and another reporter. “Look, we aren’t content with the rates we’ve got and we’re working to improve them and we’re seeing results,” he said.

On other program fronts, Boeing will bid on the presidential helicopter program, Cunningham confirmed. And Masiello answered one of the most important questions surrounding the whole idea: can a V-22 land on the White House lawn: “It fits, by the way.”

And while Masiello declined to answer my questions about the recent loss of CV-22 in Afghanistan, he did make a point of saying the MV-22 and CV-22 fleets continued their operations “and did not stop them.” That would seem to indicate that no significant equipment problem was suspected in the crash. We keep hearing it was from brownout, but nothing official has been said and won’t be forthcoming until the crash investigation is complete.

Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/05/04/osprey-readiness-improves-bid-on-for-wh/#ixzz0n6i7gUvn

[buglerbilly]

Boeing To Pitch V-22 Multiyear Offer To Pentagon

By JOHN REED

Published: 5 May 2010 16:19

Boeing is preparing to offer the Pentagon another multiyear deal for the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotors used by the U.S. Marine Corps and Air Force, company officials announced.

"We're fully pursuing a second multiyear on the V-22," Boeing's V-22 program manager, Gene Cunningham, said May 4 during a news conference at a Navy League-sponsored conference in Maryland. "We're working with our industry partners to put together the right business case" so the offer could be considered for the 2013 budget.

The deal could include a foreign buyer or other U.S. government agencies, Cunningham said.

He gave no specific quantities of aircraft, but said the deal would likely include the last seven of the Air Force's 50 CV-22s.

The company is determining what impact these additional customers will have on the V-22 production line, which is gearing up to build 40 tilt-rotors per year for the Pentagon by 2014.

Boeing is in its third year of a half-decade multiyear contract for the V-22.

Cunningham also announced that Boeing's V-22 program will respond to the Pentagon's request for information (RfI) for the V-XX Marine One helicopter replacement program.

"We plan to respond to the RfI because it is a vertical program and that seem to have value in terms of the V-22," Cunningham said.

This comes as Boeing is working with the Marines and Air Force to find ways to improve the tilt-rotor's roughly 70 percent reliability rate. The firm is working with suppliers to redesign some parts that are wearing out faster than expected in harsh operating environments, Cunningham said.

NavAir hopes to reach an 85 percent reliability rate for its MV-22s by 2018, said Col. Greg Masiello, NavAir's joint V-22 program manager.

[buglerbilly]

Exclusive: First V-22 Combat Crash Likely “Pilot Error”

By Jamie McIntyre Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 9:51 pm

An investigation of the crash of an Air Force special operations CV-22 Osprey in Afghanistan last month has concluded the pilot of the tilt-rotor aircraft flew too close to the ground, striking an earthen berm, a source who has been briefed on the finding tells Line Of Departure.

The conclusions of the accident investigators — which haven’t been released because they are not yet final — rule out mechanical malfunction and hostile fire as possible causes of the first crash of an operational model of the controversial heli-plane.

The final report is likely to blame the mishap on pilot error, because the evidence suggests the V-22 was flying at high speed, at very low altitude, in airplane mode, with its massive rotors perpendicular to the ground when it struck the berm.

A source says the force of the impact sheared off both engines (nacelles) and both wings before the plane flipped over.

Remarkably of the 20 occupants, 16 survived the crash. The dead included an Air Force pilot, an Air Force flight engineer, an Army ranger, and a civilian whose affiliation was not disclosed.

Proponents of the V-22 have argued the aircraft’s design makes surviving a crash more likely, and the incident would likely lend credence to that argument. It will also dispute statements made by the Taliban, which after the crash on the night of April 8/April 9 claimed credit for shooting the down.

The accident report neither validates the V-22’s proponents, nor vindicates its detractors. It may just postpone that debate until the next incident.

“I don’t think it means anything for the future of the V-22, because obviously that kind of thing could happen to any aircraft if its just a question of flying too fast and too low”, says longtime aviation reporter Richard Whittle, author of the authoritative new book, “The Dream Machine: the Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey.“

Whittle cautions against blaming the pilot for the crash, before the full investigation is released, “Whether a pilot is actually negligent or not is a very difficult question,” says Whittle, “but if that turns out to be the case, then obviously it has nothing to do with the mechanics of the V-22, or possibly even the tactics, maybe the Air Force has to rethink their tactics, I don’t know.”

Read more: http://www.lineofdeparture.com/2010/05/18/exclusive-first-v-22-combat-crash-likely-pilot-error/#ixzz0oLezYKDj