Osprey Successful at Sea

(Source: US Naval Air Systems Command issued Nov. 28, 2003)

The V-22 Integrated Test Team recently completed a detachment in USS Bataan (LHD 5), the second at-sea period for the Osprey program this year.

During the eleven days of the Phase IV shipboard suitability testing, the ITT conducted deck landing qualifications for five V-22 pilots (including one from VMX-22, the new test and evaluation squadron based at MCAS New River, North Carolina), completed test points necessary to expand the Osprey’s wind-over-deck envelope, and measured the effects of hovering H-53 and H-46 helicopters on a V-22 on deck behind them.

ITT engineers were pleased with the test results. “With the V-22 at its lightest operational weight, its roll response to an approaching H-53 or H-46 wake was three-point-five degrees, approximately half that of what was predicted,” said Dave Mason, Bell-Boeing flying qualities engineer. “This represents a tremendous improvement over the previous configuration. We still have some testing to complete and data analysis to do before removing the restriction on helicopters landing on adjacent spots forward of the V-22, but these results are promising.”

The wind over deck envelope expansion testing was conducted with the V-22 parked on Spot 7, near the Bataan’s stern, and the results gleaned could allow the aircraft’s operating envelope to be increased by as much as fifteen knots of wind velocity across the flight deck during take offs and landings.

Osprey No. 22 was used for the bulk of the testing and was joined for the final two days of the detachment by Osprey No. 10.

“The deployment went very smoothly,” said Colonel Craig Olson, USAF, V-22 Joint Program Manager. “Our success is a reflections of the effort of the test team – from flight control software development to simulation to shipboard verification – and the cooperation of Bataan’s crew.”

Phase V, the ITT’s next shipboard suitability testing period, will be carried out in April ’04.