• GregorGizeh
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    11 months ago

    I hate how these things are such deathtraps. The concept itself has to be the coolest flying vehicle humans ever came up with, combining the advantages of the two modes of aerial locomotion

    • deranger@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      What you get is both downsides rather than both advantages. It can’t fly fast enough for fixed wing, nor can it fly slow enough for rotary, meaning it can’t effectively be escorted. It doesn’t have the range or speed of fixed wing, nor can’t it hover as well as a helicopter. It requires special logistical channels. It’s finicky to fly and high maintenance. Because the rotors are so heavily loaded it creates significant rotor wash and it’s especially susceptible to vortex ring state. It can’t glide like fixed wing and can’t autorotate like rotary for a power loss in flight.

      It’s garbage. The idea of using these for rescue or VIP transport is laughable.

    • kobra@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      I’m kinda shocked they’re still using them. There have seemingly been a lot of crashes over the past few years.

    • HubertManne@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      11 months ago

      I was under the impression most of the crashes were early on and after they fixed issues and improved it the crash rate went to more like other aircraft. I know the marines really liked them for some reason and fought to keep the project going because at one point it was close to being canceled. Looking it up though I can’t tell.

        • HubertManne@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          11 months ago

          yeah I was looking at wikipedia and im pretty sure any military crash with fatalities would make the news for any aircraft so it does still seem like a lot.

    • kite@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      11 months ago

      I hate how these things are such deathtraps.

      I live near a military base, and the base runs a lot of nighttime training over the forest my house is in. It is not unusual for Osprey to literally hover over my house. They get so close that the whole house shakes, and the sound from them is so loud it covers up a normal-volumed conversation. It doesn’t bother us, but every time it happens I think of all the crashes 😬

      We can also hear the base when it has bombing practice! Sitting on our deck and hearing bombs going off is a surreal experience. I can’t imagine what it’s like to hear those in an actual war situation.