Osprey lands on USS Iwo Jima

The Osprey has landed--in Iraq, and in the history books. One of the most controversial aircraft in recent aviation history, the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey has come in for criticism over the many years of its development for reasons ranging from financial costs to fatal crashes to its novel and rather ungainly design: it flies like both a helicopter and a fixed-wing plane.

The U.S. Marines Corps Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263--known more colorfully as the "Thunder Chickens," after the Osprey--arrived Sunday at al-Asad airbase in Iraq, according to a story Tuesday from McClatchy Newspapers. The arrival wasn't without incident: McClatchy reports that a malfunction en route forced one of the aircraft to land in Jordan for repairs--twice. The unit and its 10 Ospreys departed a North Carolina port aboard a ship in mid-September. The Pentagon has hailed this as the first-ever tactical deployment by the world's first tilt-rotor squadron. In this photo from late September, an Osprey lands on the USS Iwo Jima while crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

At a briefing in April to discuss the upcoming deployment, Lt. Gen. John Castellaw, the Marine deputy commandant for aviation, proclaimed the Osprey fit for duty. "It's been through extensive operational testing and evaluation," he said, according to a transcript of the briefing, "and it is our fervent feeling that this aircraft is the most capable, survivable aircraft that we carry our most important weapons system in, which is the Marine riflemen, and that we will successfully introduce this aircraft in combat."

Caption text by Jonathan Skillings, CNET News.com.