What about knowing something and knowing that it might be wrong?
Shockingly, the stories are written by humans. Every single one of them.
They are. At least the ones in mainstream US media are. But those stories aren't owned by people, they're owned by a corp. And they're not written for the purpose of providing accurate information. They're written to maintain ratings. They're also not presented by the authors. Unless you get down to a small town AM radio station, the stories are written by one team, and presented by people who have nice haircuts. My point being it's entertainment. Like watching a Snoopy special, except with worse writing and acting, and that it's pretending to be news. It's the Springer show, with a weather clip and a pet story, and without throwing chairs or off-duty Chicago cops.
First question in Journalism 101: What is the primary purpose of a news organization? And the answer is: to make a profit. Nothing has ever changed; no new story is without bias, and never has been.
one of the earlier Marine Corps press releases was pretty clear:
POTUS generally flies on only two types for 95% of travel.
FYI: It does. The V22 ability not so much but the AW609 civilian tiltrotor can auto quite well. However when it comes to what helicopters are used by the HMX-1, its due to certain protocols more than model types with the current aircraft consisting of special versons ofthe H-3 and H-60.
Twenty years in and AW609 isn't certified, yikes. I searched and could find nothing on the Osprey's auto capabilities; the AW609 has a 15.9 PSF disk loading versus the Osprey's 17.4 PSF, both at gross, so it may be possible.
It was more the economics of the venture than the aircraft on why it is not certified yet. It started as a Bell Agusta project in the 90s, then Bell Agusta split with Augusta keeping the 609 and 139 (replacement for the Bell 412). Bad move on Bell's part and they have never recovered on the civilian side. Then the main mark for the 609 evaporated due to various reasons, and Agusta morphed into Agusta Westland then Leonardo. And when the 2 top 609 test pilots were killed in flight it set the project back again. It will be certified but will only have a very narrow niche market.
To add to the above, its main issue is a very low inertia blade system with a high gross weight and a wing that disturbs the airflow through the blades. Hence it needs to drop quickly to keep the blades turning. Other conventional type helicopters also suffer from rather quick auto descents like the S-92 to the point it has only been demonstrated several times during certification. A number of factors influence the autorotation abilities but the V22 has just about all of them against it. The 609 not so much.
And that was the initial intent. Bell predicated a need of a 1000 609s when first flown. But then performance issues, payloads, physical footprint, etc. took out the primary customer of offshore support. At present, its an aircraft looking for a market and Leonardo thinks once its certified it will develop that market. But in a limited capacity. The only people I've heard of being serious are corporate, EMS, and certain utility ops. Maybe it will give the urban Evtols a run for their money, but at $25M-$30M a copy doubtful. Its a neat aircraft and at one time the ol' day job was looking to buy several and I had my name on the list to work them. I hope they can make something of it.
That would be the end of the Republic.
No scene work just inter-facility transfers. Think of the King Airs, PC12s, Lears. Bristow is the latest launch customer but haven't heard what sector it will be used in. I think the biggest customer will be boutique charters given its low pax count and cost.
Its heavy too at 16,000 or 18,000lbs MGW depending on options.
