The Woracle

Time magazine has taken a hatchet to the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey in its latest US issue. Publishing its "special investigation" as the US Marine Corps deploys the tiltrotor to Iraq, Time makes its makes opinion clear on the cover: "It's unsafe. It can't shoot straight. It's already cost 30 lives and $20 billion..."

The "investigation", by Mark Thompson, is anything but "special". Fundamentally, it's a rehash of every criticism levelled at the V-22 since the programme began more than 20 years ago. Any valid concerns Thompson raises are lost amidst the shoddy reporting and biased writing.

Here I need to make clear that I want the V-22 to succeed. I think the tiltrotor has great potential. But I accept there are valid concerns that can be raised over the Osprey. It's cost and complexity are issues. Designing and building the V-22 has stressed Bell and Boeing. Learning to fly a tiltrotor safely and effectively has tested the Marine Corps.

But the Osprey is now in the hands of the Marines. They remain steadfastly committed to the aircraft and say they have developed tactics to exploit the tiltrotor's strengths and mitigate its weaknesses. They are also going into combat, and publicly acknowledge they may lose aircraft. But the Marines expect the V-22 to be more survivable than their aging CH-46 helicopters.

After spending $20 billion, it would be hard for the Marines to admit they did not get what they wanted in the Osprey. But it will also be hard to hide any fundamental deficiences in combat. Iraq will be a far more rigorous "special investigation" of the V-22 than any Time magazine article.

Assistant Marine Corps commandant Gen Robert Magnus has sent Time magazine a strongly worded defence of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor in response to Mark Thompson's "flying shame" article. You can read the letter to the editor here: Download file

Magnus calls the article dated, inaccurate, unbalanced and misleading and says the MV-22B has been "rigorously tested and found to be ready and relevant for combat operations" and the Marine Corps has "no doubts" the Osprey is ready.

Time has also received a letter from American Helicopter Society executive director Rhett Flater saying the article gives "an outdated, sensationalistic and wholly inaccurate view of the V-22". Read the letter here: Download file It is a thorough rebuttal of Thompson's claims.

Popular Science has included the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey in its "The Best of What's New" list for 2007. Not bad for an aircraft that entered development 25 years ago. Makes up for Time magazine's shoddy "special investigation" into the V-22, and gives me an excuse to run this great picture of a US Air Force Special Operations CV-22, somewhere in New Mexico.

(USAF photo)

In case you wondered, other winners in PopSci's "best of 2007" aviation & space category include Cessna's Flycatcher, sorry Skycatcher light sport aircraft, Boeing's EA-18G Growler "jammer jet", and Eclipse's Concept Jet (maybe they will build it now).

The US Marine Corps has just released this rare image of an MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor operating in Iraq - there are green rotor-tip lights, the Marines now tell me. (US Navy photo)

After some positive press in the past week, when the Marine Corps praised the tiltrotor's performance so far in Iraq, the week ended on a down note when an MV-22 was forced to land near Greenville, NC, after a panel fell off an engine nacelle. No damage was done and the aircraft returned home to MCAS New River the next day.

Meanwhile, the Marines' first progress report since the Osprey deployed to Al Anbar province in October makes clear most of the Thunder Chickens' 1,400-plus sorties and 2,000-plus flight hours in theatre have been "battlefield circulation" and "governance" missions - in other words transporting officers, Iraqi leaders and others around the area of operations. Not surprisingly, the tiltrotor's speed is appreciated by its passengers.

Only recently have the MV-22s begun roving aeroscout missions to hunt for insurgents and the tiltrotors had taken part in one pre-planned raid by the end of January. So, for now, the Osprey gets a passing grade.