A gear crack that led to a fatal crash of a V-22 Osprey last year may have been started by weak spots in a metal used to manufacture that part, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The November crash killed eight Air Force Special Operations Command service members. It was the second time in less than two years that a catastrophic failure of a part of the Osprey’s proprotor gearbox, which serves as its transmission, caused a fatal accident. In June of 2022, five Marines were killed when a different part of the proprotor gearbox system failed.
The crashes have led to an aggressive effort by the V-22 program office and manufacturer Bell Flight to find fixes for the critical system, which has had some components wear down earlier than the military expected. While investigators still don’t know for certain what caused either crash, this latest finding might hold some clues.
I would imagine that a newer airframe that isn’t a first of its kind would have better safety, but I guess only time will tell
From what I’ve heard the drive system is more static than the osprey so supposedly less points of failure.
Not having to pack itself up on an LSD probably helps.
We’ll have to go by the military’s current quality marker: how many randomly drop out of the sky on some unsuspecting japanese person.