I know, we hear it every month or two, but in all seriousness, do you think it’s got a chance at surviving? The problems seem to be mounting and now pressure from competition (EH-101) is starting to nail down the coffin lid!
Personally I think it will survive, and these are the reasons why:
1. Congress has invested so much money in to the project, to not have it work after all this time would actually damage the American faith in their congress and thus effect the government. So the pressure is on to make it work regardless of how long it takes!
2. This is a new type of air transportation, look at all the problems the other forms have encountered and they still survived
a) Balloons
b) Planes
c) Airships (though the Hindenburg did damage this industry severely)
d) Helicoptors
So naturally there are going to be problems in generating a new form of transport, but how we deal with it these days is very different to way back then when the others where started. Don’t forget that this type has been around for a while it’s self (CV-101 for example) and the V-22 series is only the logical solution!
Even if congress does finally pull the plug, Bell will probably keep the project going as a private venture in the hopes that they might get a sale out of it anyway! I know that the RAAF and the Australian Army are interested in this programe and had hoped to buy 12 to replace the old DHC-4’s with them back in the early 90’s, but the plane wasn’t ready so we never got them, in fact we still have the Carribous!
Anyway, here are 4 pics for your enjoyment!
Fighter pilots make movies, Bomber pilots make history and Nerds make money from the sims!
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March 2, 2002 at 11:43 pm