Osprey taking off while on short...

I was outside yesterday afternoon and heard a "different sounding" airplane overhead. I looked up and saw an Osprey headed north northwest over my house. I'm guessing it was at about five thousand feet outbound from Charleston AFB. Pretty cool!

 

So there must be a driveshaft between the two engines (or transmissions).

 

Yes. Otherwise a single engine out is total loss of the aircraft.

 

My brother is an MV-22 IP at MCAS New River in NC. He's been flying the osprey for almost 10 years and is one of the highest time Osprey IP's in the Marine Corps. He swears by the thing and thinks it's probably the most under rated aircraft in our military arsenal and absolutely loves flying it. I've flown the simulator a flew times and it's a blast. It does not have a cyclic/collective like a traditional helicopter, rather it has a TCL (thrust control lever) and a cyclic, so a little strange. Not really a helicopter, and not really an airplane.

It's a beast of an aircraft...

 

From my experience with the Boeing products I can say that anything that has to be symmetrically driven is usually driven by one shaft. The flaps, slats, and anything else is always driven by one source. If one goes, they all go. I think of the 747 L. E. slats and flaps. There is one shaft that stretches from wing tip to wing tip that drives it all by means of gear boxes in the line of the shaft. There is no chance that there could be an asymmetrical condition of the devices driven by the power shaft. I have to think that the Osprey has the same design philosophy in the power train or it would be as James Wood stated, a loss of the aircraft.

 

Do you recall any instances where that system has gone awry in Boeing planes? It seems like things always find a way to break in the least expected ways.

A few years ago some friends ended up with a nasty asymmetric flap situation in a C-130 after the flap drive shaft broke and they ended up with one flap crumpled in a partially deployed position. Fortunately they were landing at our base in a relatively peaceful Mid East country and the recovery went fine. Getting it fixed was a whole different matter as they whole wing basically had to be taken apart to replace that one big drive rod. If memory serves they ended up bolting everything together in a "no flap" configuration and had a special crew fly it to depot.

In the case of the Osprey I really wonder if the one engine has enough power to keep things going. I'm sure that straight and level flight isn't a huge issue so much as when it has to rotate the nacelles and transition to the landing phase. It would really surprise me if it can do that with just one engine in all variety of conditions. It's always a bit thrilling in the C-130 when you are heavy and its hot and you gotta unguard to switches to dump fuel as the three engine ceiling is subterranean.

 

I saw one last week driving down the coast past Camp Pendleton. It is an amazing sight.

There was a hovercraft out doing maneuvers in the ocean at the same time.

 

I see the Osprey all day long flying up and down the coast. Interesting aircraft for sure. Your brother is probably my neighbor who is an Osprey pilot. Cheers!

 

I have never heard of a flap or slat shaft failure on a Boeing airplane. They are stout.

 

That makes sense. Would be a real pita without an interconnect!

 

I had a 757 flight cancelled on me when the incoming airplane had a flap jackscrew failure on approach and they had to take the airplane out of service.

As for the V-22's interconnect shaft, that part of the package was designed by Bell.

 

As I think about it, does the single engine also turn the prop/rotor on the dead engine via the shaft?

Could it maintain altitude with a full load on one engine?

Could it land horizontally (wing tilted about 45 degrees?) on one engine?

Can it do an aborted takeoff?

 

jackscrew driven by the gearbox driven by the torque shaft driven by the motor in wheel well or center section front spar. Sumpin else I made up.