There was good news for Delco today as the House voted down an amendment that would have cut funding for the V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor aircraft used in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Osprey is manufactured in part by the some of the 5,900 Boeing workers in Delaware County.
Unofficial reports indicate that the V-22 Osprey is one of the coolest aircraft in the world.
The Delco Daily Times has the full story, but in summation, the V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft (according to Wikipedia).
Political and military leaders have endeavored for decades to kill the project, but intrepid lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan and former Rep. Curt Weldon have managed over the years to protect it.
For those of you who say it’s hypocritical to advocate across-the-board spending cuts while protecting a program that many experts say is not worthwhile, you’ve obviously never seen one of these babies in action.
“This is an instrument that has proven itself in the theater of war,” said U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, R-7, of Upper Darby.
Meehan vowed to fight for the program in recent months and applauded his congressional colleagues for voting against the amendment Tuesday.
“The success of this program has been validated by commanders in the field and the V-22 has been given high marks for the operational advantages it brings to combat operations,” Meehan wrote in the letter.
“Boeing is grateful for Congressman Meehan’s support of the V-22 Osprey program and we applaud the 325 members of Congress who joined him in supporting the program through yesterday’s vote,” said Andy Lee, spokesman for the Boeing Mobility Division, Wednesday. “The V-22 Osprey continues to receive high praise from the U.S. Marines and Air Force Special Operations Command for its outstanding performance in combat, ship-board and humanitarian deployments around the world. We are pleased that Congress is recognizing the critical role the Osprey is playing for the United States military.”
Loading ...
5 Responses
USA, USA
This is fucking sick.
Your readers who want to learn more about the Osprey may be interested my book The Dream Machine, which tells the aircraft’s history in detail. The Dream Machine was reviewed in the January issue of the Smithsonian Institution’s Air & Space magazine and is available on amazon.com.
Your readers who want to learn more about the Osprey may be interested my book The Dream Machine, which tells the aircraft’s history in detail. The Dream Machine was reviewed in the January issue of the Smithsonian Institution’s Air & Space magazine and is available on amazon.com.
In January of 2011 the Pentagon announced that the V-22 Osprey has a record of not being available for 43% of its missions. This is primarily due to its components prematurely failing at high rates. Unofficially it may be a “cool aircraft”, but it has a dismal performance record.