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Subject:
The V-22 continues to fail.
Crusader
10/22/2003 9:07:09 PM
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There is so much bad news to report about the V-22 program in 2003 that this article will cover basic issues; the "vortex ring" stall and cost issues will be addressed later this year. This will be our sixth article about the V-22 program, which has become the largest weapons scandal in US military history. The V-22 first flew in 1989 and remains "in development" despite four major crashes which killed 30 people. The V-22 began production in 1999 in violation of the sacred "fly before you buy" standard, even after it failed testing. A dozen are produced each year and placed in storage as testing and development continues. The current promise is that Marines will begin using V-22s in the fleet in 2006, although development will continue until 2008. If all problems are fixed, the first 80 V-22s will have to be rebuilt to the final "Block C" configuration after 2008.
G2mil has published five articles over the past three years exposing the V-22 scandal:
The V-22 Fiasco - too dangerous for combat
MV-22 Lies - keeping a failed program funded
Keeping the V-22 Alive - the biggest scandal in US military history
V-22 Update - this scandal just grows and grows
Waiting for the Next V-22 Crash - soaring costs too
In November 2000, the Pentagon's Operational Test and Evaluation office rated the V-22 capable of achieving planned missions, but recommended against full production and declared it "operationally unsuitable". The evaluators noted the V-22 suffers a low mission capable rate and "failures related to the hydraulic system deserve special mention." The complex hydraulic power system suffered 170 failures during the 804.5 hour operational evaluation. Two weeks after this report was released, another V-22 crashed while the Corps' best V-22 pilot attempted to land in good weather, killing four more Marines. The Marine Corps determined that this crash was caused by hydraulic failure and software problems.
In May 2002, the V-22 was declared ready to resume flight tests after a 17-month stand down. The main focus was to fix the hydraulic and software problems. "All of the things that were wrong with this airplane have been fixed," Marine Col. Dan Schultz, the V-22 program manager, said when the upgraded aircraft resumed testing. Several more problems have emerged since then:
Hydraulic Lines Fail Again
On March 10, 2003, the V-22 program announced that all test V-22s would be grounded for ten days to replace defective titanium hydraulic lines. The V-22's 5000 psi hydraulic system has caused many problems in the past, spouting leaks 171 times during operational testing and was the primary cause of the last fatal crash. Helicopters and aircraft use larger and heavier 3000psi systems with stainless steel lines. While titanium is stronger than stainless steel, it is more brittle, more costly, and more difficult to manufacture. Many people assumed the V-22 would adopt traditional hydraulic systems as part of its redesign, adding yet another thousand pounds of weight to an already overweight aircraft. Instead, the program made fixing the leaky titanium lines its primary focus during the 17-month stand down, adding coatings and stronger fasteners.
According to the V-22 program office, these new hydraulic lines leaked during a V-22 assembly test at Fort Worth on December 6, 2002. They inspected lines and learned they were so thin in places they would only last 10% of their promised service life. This was truly embarrassing because they had selected the world's best manufacturer to produce this key item. Choosing a new manufacturer to produce new lines would take months, and there was no guarantee anyone could make them to specs. So they kept word of the defective titanium lines secret until new ones were delivered in March 2003 from two new contractors. It is unclear why V-22s were not grounded when this safety problem was uncovered on December 6th.
Luckily, no V-22 crashed during this time. After a ten day stand down to replace the 20 flight critical lines in the V-22s undergoing testing, Ward Carroll, the V-22 Public Affairs official, explained that replacing all the defective lines, like those that control the ramp and doors, would be too expensive. Only the 20 critical lines were replaced, while the other 780 defective lines remain in each V-22. So current plans are to deliver the first 60 V-22s with known defective hydraulic lines to the Marines and let them replace them as they begin to leak.
On August 6th, 2003, even one of the newly replaced titanium hydraulic lines sprung a leak after just a few hours of use during a pilot training flight. The back up system worked and the V-22 made a safe emergency landing. The program immediately announced there would be an investigation into the cause, but stated that it was not caused by chaffing or defective lines. Of course they didn't know the cause, but would never admit the problem had still not be |
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