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V-22 Icing Detachment Returns from Halifax

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040507-07

Release Date: 5/7/2004 1:34:00 PM

By Ward Carroll, Naval Air Systems Command Public Affairs

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. (NNS) -- Osprey No. 24 returned to Naval Air Station Patuxent River on the afternoon of April 29, after spending six months conducting aircraft icing tests from Canadian Forces Base Shearwater near Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the detachment, Osprey No. 24 logged 67 hours, 37 of which were in actual icing conditions.

Because of the nature of the V-22's mission--rapidly getting combat troops and supplies where they are needed--Osprey crews may not always have the luxury of avoiding bad weather. As a result, the Osprey has a requirement for a robust and capable ice detection and anti-ice system.

"The prototype icing system worked better than expected," said Marine Maj. Frank Conway, who along with Chief Corporate Test Pilot Tom Macdonald, flew all of the icing test flights. "Other than tweaking the algorithms that control when the wing boots inflate to remove ice and at what temperature heat is sent out to the prop-rotors, there was very little redesigning of the system done while we were in Halifax."

Conway noted that the only major configuration change engineers are investigating is where to move the icing detection probe to provide the timeliest feedback to the pilots.

"The detachment was extremely successful," said Don Byrne, who alternated Integrated Test Team (ITT) flight test director responsibilities with the ITT's Paul Gambacorta. "We cleared all temperature and liquid water content ranges, so now we're able to fly for extended periods of time in all weather conditions."

Conway was quick to attribute much of the ITT's success to their Canadian hosts.

"They treated us like their own for the duration of our time there," Conway said. "The facilities and parts support were fantastic. The weather briefs were dead on. When we were airborne, the controllers would give us real-time weather updates and did everything in their power to help us find ice to fly in. They kept us from wasting any time."

The team will return to Shearwater in November for another six months, focusing on longer flights in icing conditions, failure modes, helicopter mode flight, and the overall performance and reliability of the production configuration of the anti-ice system.

"Our goal out of the next period is to have a system in place that fully meets the V-22 system design specifications," said Air Force Col. Craig Olson, V-22 joint program manager. "When we're done, Osprey crews will have an anti-ice system with capabilities shared by very few rotorcraft."