4 ms·
Why did the half-plane, half-helicopter not work?
- Melkman 11y agoHmm, I'd say that V22 Osprey does work. It's still a compromise and a full heli or full plane is better suited for most tasks but a hybrid does have its use.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- akamaka 11y agoThis graph shows how much better the Osprey's tiltrotor design is compared to the Fairey Rotodyne's compound design: http://www.defense-aerospace.com/dae/articles/communiques/AW609envelope.gif http://www.defense-aerospace.com/dae/articles/communiques/AW...
- Shivetya 11y agothere are times where the V22 looks straight out of a science fiction movie. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/3rd_Battalion_3rd_Marines_Osprey_flights.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/3rd_Batt...
- johnjackamend 11y agoEh. The total cost of its program ($35.6 billion) almost came to exactly $1 billion per death incurred by accidents during its testing from 1991-2000(36 fatalities). All that money and life spent on a somewhat functional newly minted freedom boner.
- yongjik 11y agoI don't think "death per budget" is a meaningful metric, unless talking about weapons or serial killers. You can't just take two numbers we want to minimize, divide one by another, and claim significance.
- rbanffy 11y agoMultiplying them would be more meaningful.
- melling 11y agoIs $35 billion a lot of money? We did get a step forward in engineering. The lessons learned advanced our knowledge forever. The money spent in actual wars for little things like air conditioning, for example, cost more: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-w...
- georgemcbay 11y agoThat was my first thought as well (off the title alone), and I'm somewhat surprised the article didn't mention the Osprey at least in passing. I mean, you can certainly argue that the program was not worth the cost in money or lives lost (as is already being done in this subthread), but ultimately the thing works -- as someone who lives in San Diego, I see them flying overhead multiple times per week.
- michaelbuddy 11y agoI was watching a documentary years ago (vhs tape) that talked about how there were problems with the Osprey. The lingering question I had was whether it was a problem of that design or the concept. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_V-22_Osprey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_incidents_involv...
- kevin_thibedeau 11y agoAlthough not meant for passenger service, the AH-65 [1] would likely have been a successful hybrid had the stopgap Cobra not been such a resounding success. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AH-56_Cheyenne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_AH-56_Cheyenne
- detaro 11y agoWhat's the state of the art in active anti-noise technology for helicopters? I've read about that kind of thing a few times, but don't know what actual numbers are.
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoIt would be hard to anti-noise the Rotodyne because it literally had small jet engines on the end of each rotor - which was why it so incredibly loud in VTOL. I can't find actual noise figures for it, but I suspect it wasn't all the much louder than some modern jet liners. But jet liners land at out-of-city airports, and the whole point of the Rotodyne was that it could land in the middle of a city - and you're not going to get certification for that for a plane that can be heard miles away. I'd guess it was unbearably noisy inside the cabin too. Here's a sales video, with vintage cheesy music and equally vintage British accents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Z1UnRZDyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Z1UnRZDyo
- curtis 11y agoAnother tip jet helicopter was the Sud-Ouest Djinn [1] from the 1950s. This design was somewhat successful, with 178 units being built. Unlike other tip jet designs, the Djinn used a fixed gas turbine to drive an air-compressor, and the blades were simply powered by compressed-air tip jets. Since tip jet driven rotors don't generate a lot of torque, the Djinn didn't have a tail rotor. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud-Ouest_Djinn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sud-Ouest_Djinn
- sandworm101 11y agoToo big and too complex. Just like the Osprey. But Canadair has it all figured out. The CL-84 was a tilt-rotor, tilt-wing aircraft that was landing troops on US carriers 40 years ahead of the Osprey. It probably had 1/100th the part count. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-84 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadair_CL-84
- WalterBright 11y agoHelicopters are expensive - high fuel consumption, high maintenance. They're also inherently much less safe than an airplane. A helicopter is inherently unstable (it wants to crash, whereas an airplane wants to fly), and losing a rotor blade means everyone dies (hence the high maintenance costs).