The Bell Boeing V-22 military tiltrotor is currently "sitting its final exam" in the words of deputy programme manager Col Bill Taylor of the US Marine Corps (USMC). And he is in no doubt what the marks will be: "This is going to be the aircraft's finest hour."
Many in the aerospace community might be slightly more cautious than Taylor, who is due to take up the reins as programme chief in the next few months.
But speaking at a press conference at Le Bourget yesterday, he was keen to press home just how important a piece of technology the V-22 will prove to the end users - the military community.
The V-22 is currently engaged in a painstakingly detailed operational evaluation (OpEval) which will go a long way to shaping the future of an aircraft that has suffered the highs and lows during a lengthy development programme.
The MV-22 variant of the tiltrotor, which both the USMC and the US Navy are buying, will need to perform well against two distinct criteria to emerge unscathed from OpEval.
"Operational effectiveness is about how the aircraft matches up to a whole array of targets - payload, speed etc," says Taylor. "The operational suitability question looks at areas such as reliability and how easy the V-22 is to maintain."
Out of the 29 aircraft in Block A of the programme, 22 have been delivered and all 29 will eventually be used for training purposes.
Block B aircraft will be the first to be configured to 'go to war' and those deliveries will begin in December of this year. Block C V-22s start development in 2006 with first deliveries in 2011.
Low rate initial production (LRIP) begins in fiscal year '07 with 16 aircraft in the schedule, followed by year-on-year figures of 24, 36, 40 and 43.
The CV-22 variant on order by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) will undergo a more limited OpEval next summer and work remains to be done to return that programme to schedule. The two test aircraft have been plagued by reliability issues, but have now been joined by third test asset.
Source: Flight Daily News
