Strange-looking Aircraft this Morning

I

imp

Senior Member
Last night my wife, up in our room at the Edgewater Hotel, 21st. floor, heard a very strange-sounding aircraft coming in. The airport lies just across the river, and from the higher floors, nearly the entire airport is visible. She saw nothing in the dark. Heading back this morning, she called out this aircraft as I was driving, I looked, and my jaw dropped! We got as close as possible, to get some pics. A guy was underneath the tail, servicing something. The fuselage looks awful small, given the enormous engines and three-bladed propellers. Our pilots here, or military folks might ID it. imp








 

It's a V-22 Osprey. Technically, its a Helicopter, since the wings, engines, and props rotate upwards for takeoffs and landings....then transition straight ahead for normal flight. I think it was developed by Boeing and Bell for use primarily by the Marines. It offers the takeoff and landing advantages of a helicopter, and also offers the payload and speed of a more traditional aircraft. There were a number of problems in its early stages, but I think most of the issues have been resolved.
 
My wife posted her pics & story in the Laughlin Buzz, the local Facebook group. Admin is submitting to the local newspaper! Her thread has remained #1 for 3 hours now, unusual! She's pretty happy about. You wouldn't believe some of the comments! One guy worked on Osprey 22 engines, posted a pic of one torn-down. 66 replies already. A pic showing the engines rotated for upwards lift (horizontal props) was posted by the engine guy, but would not copy directly, nice shot, here's the link: imp

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=985282304846683&set=p.985282304846683&type=3

EDIT:

The engine pic:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206750499693608&set=p.10206750499693608&type=3
 
Don M. said:
It's a V-22 Osprey. Technically, its a Helicopter, since the wings, engines, and props rotate upwards for takeoffs and landings....then transition straight ahead for normal flight. I think it was developed by Boeing and Bell for use primarily by the Marines. It offers the takeoff and landing advantages of a helicopter, and also offers the payload and speed of a more traditional aircraft. There were a number of problems in its early stages, but I think most of the issues have been resolved.
Click to expand...

 
The engineering on these types of aircraft both fascinate and mystify me. Have you noticed that the propellers run both vertically and horizontally? Also, if I am looking at this thing correctly, it has both flaps and ailerons, not to mention a rudder system, along with a fine assortment of armament. Another thing that stands out is the fact that each rotor only has three propellers. WOW!
 
oldman said:
The engineering on these types of aircraft both fascinate and mystify me. Have you noticed that the propellers run both vertically and horizontally? Also, if I am looking at this thing correctly, it has both flaps and ailerons, not to mention a rudder system, along with a fine assortment of armament. Another thing that stands out is the fact that each rotor only has three propellers. WOW!
Click to expand...

Good observations! Look closely at the OP pics: they stop the rotors in such a way that when the engines are rotated to face forwards, one blade has to point straight up, otherwise they would hit the tarmack!

Ken's video answered a lot of questions in my mind. One was, do the wings provide enough lift to fly with the propellers located fully vertical, like a traditional prop plane; yes, they do. Otherwise the thing would have to achieve lift by having the engines rotated at an angle somewhere partway between vertical and horizontal.

Not a particularly big plane, the cockpit looked quite small, the fuselage pretty short. In order to generate enough lift to raise an aircraft straight up off the ground using props takes BIG props and a whole lot of power, evidently. Note the huge circle swung by a helicopter's rotor. Just commiserating a bit on the technicalities as I see them.

Small wonder my wife takes a dim view of mine! imp
 

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