Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

New?



This is coolbert:

New Wine in an Old Bottle??!!


Much has been written about the V-22 Osprey. The "tilt-rotor" aircraft that the U.S. Marine hierarchy wants so badly. This aircraft has been in the developmental stage for what seems decades. And has already established itself as a "widow maker".

Crashes with frequency?? Much too much "frequency"?

Is designed to be like a helicopter with vertical take off and landing AND short take off and landing [STOL] capability, also operating as a conventional turbo-prop aircraft when aloft.

In some circles is regarded as being not evolutionary but revolutionary!! A mechanical marvel the likes of which has never been seen before!!??



Whoa!!

Some old-time German aeronautical engineers might disagree with that!!

Consider first what is considered to be the world's first practical helicopter. The FA-61. An ungainly contraption that first flew in 1936!!



"The Fa-61 is considered to be the first totally successful helicopter"

Hanna Reitsch at the controls did an indoor demonstration of this "contraption for Charles Lindbergh. Took off vertically, hovered for a while, maneuvered, and landed. ALL INDOORS!! All for the benefit of "Lucky Lindy"

The German even succeeded in producing a more advanced version helicopter. This was the FA-223 "Drache". Could lift one ton??!! Was used in World War Two [WW2]??



"The Fa-223 Drache could transport loads weighing a full ton. It survived World War II"

In my estimation, THERE IS SOMETHING JUST INTUITIVELY WRONG WITH THESE DESIGNS. WHETHER THE GERMAN FROM THE PRE-WAR AND WAR YEARS, OR THE MODERN V-22, THE BASIC DESIGN CONCEPT IS FRAUGHT WITH EXTREME DANGER FROM THE START!!!

Even for the most experienced pilot, cross-winds, gusting, could pose a severe problem during vertical take-off or landing. Those prop blades of the V-22 just appear to be too long. A sudden severe tilt or over-compensation on the part of the pilot and the blades may strike the ground, with disastrous consequences. This has happened??!! [see the g2mil article about the V-22]

Am I wrong about this? I think NOT!

coolbert.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

May I ask you what you think of this?: http://tinyurl.com/2tgbga

Colonel Jack Jacobs is a generous soul in that he denounced the former hostages w/o once using the word, "coward".

One of the best POW movies is "Time Limit" (1957), starring Richard Widmark & Richard Basehart. Basehart plays Major Harry Cargill, a returned army officer under investigation for collaboration with the NKPA. I recommend it to you if you've not seen the film.

At story's end we know the First Army commanding general will approve a general court-martial, all the while understanding had Cargill not cooperated, not given propaganda speeches, the reds would have killed all the men (resisters, hard cases) in his hootch.

Apparently a court-martial or adversarial hearing for this lot plus the captain of HMS Cornwall is out because Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord, has publicly defended them.

Audie Murphy w/o pain receptors is not the model by which I judge the ex-hostage Brits. I just wish they had put up an un-cringeworthy performance. Was that too much to expect?

4:23 PM

 

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