PAUL LEWIS / PHILADELPHIA
The joint programme office (JPO) managing the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is being overhauled in response to criticism from a high- level review panel. The change comes ahead of the next critical milestone - briefing the US under-secretary of defence for acquisition, Pete Aldridge, on the engineering changes required to put the troubled tiltrotor back in the air.
"One of the criticisms levelled at us by the Blue Ribbon report was the need to improve communications among Bell Boeing and with the government. To do that they plan to strengthen the JPO and to jointly locate the government representatives and programme office with Bell Boeing and to manage it all side by side," says Bob Torgerson, senior manager Bell Boeing V-22 business development.
The Bell Boeing team under V-22 programme director Michael Tkach accordingly is being strengthened at US Naval Air Systems Command NAS Patuxent River. The US Marine Corps, meanwhile, recently appointed a new programme manager, Col Dan Schultz replacing Col Nolan Schmidt, who has headed the MV-22 effort for the past four years.
In its report, the Department of Defense-appointed panel noted an apparent "lack of communications by officials of all organisations" that resulted in "inadequate awareness" of safety, maintainability and reliability issues being raised by the lead USMC V-22 squadron VMMT-204. The panel recommended a "higher level of continuity" and more attention be paid by the navy and Bell Boeing JPO to "potential lapses in systems engineering integration disciplines as team members try to solve problems outside of established procedures".
The most immediate task before the restructured programme management is to outline to Aldridge in mid-August the necessary changes in flight control software and hydraulic system layout, along with a requirement for a vortex ring state detection system. A proposed schedule is being drawn up for making the modifications and returning the first grounded MV-22 to flying status. A notional new production schedule is also being mapped out calling for low rate initial production to be extended with 11 more aircraft funded in 2001, 12 in 2002 and 13 the year after, including three US Air Force CV-22s.
While production is being severely cut over the next few years to fund the engineering changes, Bell Boeing proposes to extend production by only one extra year to 2015 by increasing output to 40 tiltrotors a year by 2011.
Source: Flight International
