Three American servicemen died on Sunday after an accident with a V-22 Osprey, a military aircraft that is a cross between an airplane and a helicopter. Twenty soldiers were injured, international news agencies report. The incident took place during an international exercise in northern Australia.
“A terrible accident,” said Natasha Fyles, head of the province. Emergency services were already on their feet to monitor possible wildfires, she said at a press conference. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
It’s not the first Osprey to fall from the sky. Been since 1992 according to CNN twelve accidents occurred with the aircraft. The deadliest incident, which claimed 19 lives, was blamed on human error.
Complicated design
“Helicopter gets competition,” headlined NRC in 1994. With its tilting rotors, the Osprey offered the speed of an airplane, combined with the flexibility of a helicopter. While a transport helicopter like the Chinook can fly about 300 kilometers per hour, the Osprey can reach over 500.
It is not easy in itself to design such a helicopter. But the US Navy’s requirement that the wings and propeller blades fold to fit the aircraft on an aircraft carrier made it, according to news site Wired even more complicated. The relatively short propellers also have to turn so fast that the whole becomes dangerously hot.
Protest
The Osprey “isn’t quite there yet,” a retired U.S. Marine told in 2012 Wired. He speaks of design flaws that have not been taken into account enough, while those higher up put pressure to continue flying. According to the marine, the device has been “hunted through tests and evaluations”.
Japan nevertheless bought a batch of Ospreys and used them for training flights over western Tokyo this spring. Local residents protested, writes the Japanese newspaper Mainichi“We will never allow the aircraft to fly over this residential area.”