Osprey – Yes or No?

It seems to me that the basic concept of this aircraft is flawed. It’s all very well sending up one or two aircrew in VTOL fighters equipped with ejection seats, where the crew can ‘abandon ship’ if the engine(s) fail. Even helicopters can auto-rotate and land, given a minimum height. I’m not sure if the Chinook can perform an auto-rotate landing.

But filling a bus-like aircraft with soldiers and relying on two vertically positioned propellers seems to be a disaster waiting to happen at any time. I understand at least one Osprey has dropped out of the sky, killing all the soldiers and crew on board so, even if some billions of dollars have been spent on the project, shouldn’t they give up on this idea?

If any past or present US marines or soldiers read this, perhaps they could give us their thoughts on the matter. The words of a popular song which was in the hit parades many years ago seem to say it all: “Please, Mister Custer’, I don’t want to go!”

Bri