Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
It seems one learns to like it.
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For what we spent on it and how impossibly long it took us to develop it someone had better like it, not to mention the casualties involved in testing it.
Don't get me wrong, the of the tilt-rotor is tactically and even strategically brilliant, but it was way too far ahead of its time when it got in the works, and it was handled very poorly. As (comparatively) fast as the Osprey is, it is little less vulnerable than a helicopter in every important respect. The AA countermeasures installed are no more sophisticated than those already employed by every other VTOL craft, and it has virtually no onboard offensive capability whatsoever. It's just a slightly faster and much more expensive CH-53, but without the lift capacity.
For what we spent in time and resources to build this POS we could have built thousands of AH-1W SuperCobras and CH-53s, or better yet, developed a cheaper, and more maneuverable design with contra-rotating blades like the Hokum with slightly less cargo capacity, but much more survivability an ECM capability. Actually, we could have just re-invented the Hind-D and done better. What a pitiful waste
There's so much dirt covering this gold that it's not even worth the resources needed to extract it, at least not yet.