. The Osprey program, he says, had to define “a radically different way of going about vertical flight.”
“Early in the program, yes, they did have crashes; they did have safety challenges,” Birkey says. “There was an incredibly thorough scrub done on it.” The aircraft being used operationally today, he adds, “is a very safe aircraft—understanding that you fly in some of the most demanding conditions around.”
Plus, there are additional ways of thinking about safety; speed is a way to avoid danger when dealing with hostile fire. “I would actually say the Osprey in a combat environment is probably safer than other vertical lift options,” he says. In fact, both Bell and Sikorsky tout the speed of their aircraft candidates. “Low and slow is really dangerous,” Birkey adds.
Bell also touts another safety feature of the V-280. If it were to crash or land hard, “the wing and the nacelles—which is the engines, and the gear boxes, and the rotors—all that’s designed to break and shed away from the cabin,” says Ehinger. He compares that to more traditional helicopters, which have all the heft of those dynamic components right above the crew and passengers.
Plus, compared to traditional helicopters or even the Defiant X, there’s no tail rotor or tail propeller in the back, which can be aUltimately, Grove, the test pilot, says that there’s a sizable difference between the Osprey and the next-gen craft that could be the Army’s future Black Hawk vehicle. “The V-22 is more like a truck,” he says. “The V-280 is more like a sports car.”This article was originally published on March 19, 2021.Rob Verger is the Technology Editor at Popular Science.
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