While most of the focus has been on what the Marines are doing with the Osprey, the aircraft is also in use by the U.S. Air Force for some special operations units. Here, a trio of Ospreys lift off from Kirtland Air force Base, N.M., for a training mission in May.
When the Osprey's rotors (38 feet in diameter) are tilted upward, the aircraft can lift off and land vertically like a helicopter, and hover as well. When the rotors are swung forward--the transition takes only about 20 seconds--it flies like an airplane. It also flies faster and farther than a helicopter. "What we have is an aircraft that goes twice as fast. It goes three times as far," Castellaw said in the April briefing. "It can be at 200-plus knots in 15 seconds climbing the altitude. We can come out and descend at 6,000 feet per minute in fixed-wing mode. We can skim along the ground at 240 knots."
Photo by SSGT Markus Maier, U.S. Air Force
Caption by Jonathan Skillings
