After having multiplied the crash since its entry into service in recent decades, the Boeing-Bell V-22 model Osprey has rather bad press.
Mid-April, half helicopter
As reported by a Nice news article, a Boeing-Bell V-22 Osprey, this strange hybrid model between the helicopter and the plane which belongs to the American army was seen at Nice airport around 1:00 p.m. The latter came from Mildenhall, England. According to information from the media, this stopover allowed him to refuel by fuel.
According to a description of the Boeing site, the V-22 Osprey is a fighting plane that combines the best of the two worlds between the helicopter and the plane: indeed, it “uses the technology of the swinging rotor to combine the vertical performance of a helicopter”But keeps the autonomy and speed of an airplane.
A versatile plane
Thus, he takes off, landed and hovers like a helicopter, but flies at such a high speed and an altitude as high as a plane. Therefore, it moves about twice as fast as any other helicopter. In 34 years of service, more than 475 V-22 have been ordered worldwide, according to Boeing.
It is also the very first plane with swords in the world. It is deployed several times in the context of humanitarian operations in the event of an earthquake all over the world. Its maximum gross weight with vertical takeoff is 23,859 kg and around twenty people can take place on board.
The bad press of the Boeing-Bell V-22 Osprey
However, since its first flight made in 1989, the model was involved in several serious and even fatal accidents as in 2017, where three people died on the 23 soldiers present on board, during an exercise on Melville Island.
The latest accident took place on November 28, 2023 where a US Air Force V-22 crashed off a Japanese island with eight crew members on board. No one has survived. Consequently, no machine was authorized to fly until March 2024. According to the military zone, the American forces revised their procedures to best prepare the crew of these devices for a possible technical failure.
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