BEST45CAL
03-09-2001, 10:24 AM
by ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon-ordered review of the Marine Corps' troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft program is reaching a crucial juncture as a four-member panel considers its spotty safety record along with its national security value.
The panel, headed by a former deputy commandant of the Marine Corps, retired Gen. John R. Dailey, was holding its first public hearing Friday and is expected to complete its work in April.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify Friday was Donna Harter, mother of Cpl. Kelly S. Keith, 22, of Florence, S.C. He was the crew chief on an Osprey that crashed April 8, 2000, in Arizona, killing all 19 Marines aboard.
The wives of three other Marines killed in that crash, plus the sister of another, also were scheduled to testify.
The Osprey is unique in its ability to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers 90 degrees and fly like an airplane. The Marine Corps plans to buy 360 Ospreys to replace its fleet of aging CH-46 and CH-53 transport helicopters, but a Pentagon decision to approve the start of full-scale production was put off in December after an Osprey crashed in North Carolina, killing all four Marines aboard.
Gen. James Jones, commandant of the Marine Corps, has called the Osprey a ''must have'' aircraft, although he said following the December crash that a review of the program was warranted.
That crash, combined with the April accident, raised concerns at the highest levels of the Pentagon. William Cohen, who was defense secretary then, ordered an investigation. A separate probe by the Pentagon inspector general, is focusing on allegations that an Osprey squadron commander asked subordinates to falsify maintenance records.
A Marine Corps investigation of the April crash at Marana Northwest Regional Airport, about 30 miles north of Tucson, said the pilot and aircraft commander, Maj. John A. Brow, 39, of California, Md., was descending too quickly as he approached the airport and the Osprey essentially stalled and entered a nose dive.
The stall was caused by a phenomenon known as vortex ring state, a condition in which an aircraft descends so fast that the air flowing through the rotor blades moves as fast as the air being pushed down.
Philip Coyle, until recently the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, told the Dailey panel in January that the side-by-side configuration of the Osprey's rotors makes it susceptible to the onset of vortex ring state.
''Such a characteristic is fundamental and cannot be remedied by minor design changes,'' he wrote.
The only near-term solution, Coyle said, was to restrict Osprey operations. In the meantime, more research, supplemented by flight testing, was needed to understand better the circumstances in which vortex ring state sets in, he said.
The Osprey is built by Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron.
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"Wise men learn more from fools than fools learn from the wise."
AP Military Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon-ordered review of the Marine Corps' troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft program is reaching a crucial juncture as a four-member panel considers its spotty safety record along with its national security value.
The panel, headed by a former deputy commandant of the Marine Corps, retired Gen. John R. Dailey, was holding its first public hearing Friday and is expected to complete its work in April.
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify Friday was Donna Harter, mother of Cpl. Kelly S. Keith, 22, of Florence, S.C. He was the crew chief on an Osprey that crashed April 8, 2000, in Arizona, killing all 19 Marines aboard.
The wives of three other Marines killed in that crash, plus the sister of another, also were scheduled to testify.
The Osprey is unique in its ability to take off like a helicopter, rotate its propellers 90 degrees and fly like an airplane. The Marine Corps plans to buy 360 Ospreys to replace its fleet of aging CH-46 and CH-53 transport helicopters, but a Pentagon decision to approve the start of full-scale production was put off in December after an Osprey crashed in North Carolina, killing all four Marines aboard.
Gen. James Jones, commandant of the Marine Corps, has called the Osprey a ''must have'' aircraft, although he said following the December crash that a review of the program was warranted.
That crash, combined with the April accident, raised concerns at the highest levels of the Pentagon. William Cohen, who was defense secretary then, ordered an investigation. A separate probe by the Pentagon inspector general, is focusing on allegations that an Osprey squadron commander asked subordinates to falsify maintenance records.
A Marine Corps investigation of the April crash at Marana Northwest Regional Airport, about 30 miles north of Tucson, said the pilot and aircraft commander, Maj. John A. Brow, 39, of California, Md., was descending too quickly as he approached the airport and the Osprey essentially stalled and entered a nose dive.
The stall was caused by a phenomenon known as vortex ring state, a condition in which an aircraft descends so fast that the air flowing through the rotor blades moves as fast as the air being pushed down.
Philip Coyle, until recently the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, told the Dailey panel in January that the side-by-side configuration of the Osprey's rotors makes it susceptible to the onset of vortex ring state.
''Such a characteristic is fundamental and cannot be remedied by minor design changes,'' he wrote.
The only near-term solution, Coyle said, was to restrict Osprey operations. In the meantime, more research, supplemented by flight testing, was needed to understand better the circumstances in which vortex ring state sets in, he said.
The Osprey is built by Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopter Textron.
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"Wise men learn more from fools than fools learn from the wise."