I give you the next FEPP candidate. A-10s, S3 Vikings and other suggestions often fail on certain requirements and constraints. Short airfields, VODs, single engine takeoff limits, coverage response times, logistics, etc. I think V22s would be awesome.
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Given their flight record, I donāt see it.
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Hm. What if I held up the LACoFD Fly Crew video against the same thing, but its a V22 instead of a Fire Hawk. Does it buy you anything? IOW, what could the V22 do better than a T2 rotor, or an Otter, or a Bell 412, CH64, S64, AW139, etc. I mean, statistically, there are a fair share of flight accidents that donāt involve Ospreys. V22 snorkel? Dunno. Smokejumpers? Air ambulance? Hoist? Probably wouldnāt want more than a dozen?
Could it yank out snags? I bet it could.
Just from the sidelinesā¦ Turbine, transmission failures, the rotor system is not big enough( air-resistance) to facilitate an auto-rotation! The fire shelter of the rotot-wing world.
No forward airspeed, no ability to auto-rotate means your attempting to fly a brick within the ādead manās curveā 98% of the time. Not logical.
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That seems ā¦ unnecessary. And extremely expensive for no real gain.
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This video has been edited. During the training the heat from the down draft actually burned GREEN GRASS. While the āfireā didnāt do anything, go anywhere. The heat blast from the engines point directly down.
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Pity. So many factors have to line up to redeem an interesting aircraft, like 130s, S2Ts, OV10s, AH1s. I still want to believe a tiltrotor could be a fantastic fire fighting asset, lol. If not a V22, though, Iām not sure what airframe meets all the requirements.
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If you think about the mechanics of a tilt rotor (prop in front, exhaust in rear). Front a mechanical POV it would never work. If the exhaust is ducted 45-90 degrees off the center line, it has too much potential to negatively effect the arrow dynamics of the airframe during the transition between horizontal and vertical flight profiles.
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So Iām just over here folding paper airplanes thinking you guys are nerds
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Not a feasible efficient option for aerial firefighting utilization. Many logistical issues that arenāt compatible with the other aircraft or airbase operations.
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Right, but have you taken into account how cool it would be?
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If you take in to considerably how much air they move, I would be afraid to be near any line they would be working. Then throw in the fact that they keep crashingā¦
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I thought those things were universally hated, did not expect to see this topic come up.
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They do have a lot of downdraft. Iāve fueled running Skycranes and running Ospreys, and the Ospreys were far worse.
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I appreciate the discussion. I would not have known about these things if you had not posted. Same with the A10 and S3. Sometimes, these things look good and economical from a distance, but the closer you get, the more you feel the heat.
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Isnāt that why we got the Hawksš¤
FRAG OUTā¦
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Most of the folks here have touched on some good points on why the V-22 is not optimal. I was a planning officer for the Expeditionary Command Staff on theWest Coast and saw them get used in Okinawa for suppression support. There were many concerns regarding the long line bucket as the downdraft (mentioned above) made it difficult, but the primary concern by the crews was the overheating of the nacelles when in hover or slight forward positioning of blades. It didnāt facilitate enough air moving through the engines to keep it happy.
The use of the airframe for logistics, CASEVAC and ājumper platform would be feasible, but requires a 150x150 pad for a single plane and point drops are very tough as hover, again, can be risky. Semi long haul movement from established air bases to camps would also be feasible, keeping in mind that the downdraft from the engines (also mentioned above) is tough on any temporary or hardened surfaces due to high temps.
My 5c as an old expeditionary airfield Officer.
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