Check Out This Mind-Blowing Photo Of A CV-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor aircraft at Night

This photo is really awesome. And here’s what makes it so spectacular.

The photo above shows a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft performing a routine formation flight while en route to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., Jan. 9, 2017.

The 1st Special Operations Wing conducted a flyover for the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship game featuring the Clemson Tigers versus Alabama Crimson Tide.

The photograph is made particularly awesome by the Osprey’s typical glowing rotor tips.

Indeed, to help at night during formation flights as well as on the ground to show personnel the position of the blades and guide them to the safe areas and to the ramp, the tilt-rotor aircraft have two NVG (Night Vision Goggle) compatible dual-mode LED “tip lights” on the end of each rotor blade whose brightness can be controlled by the aircrew.

Once the rotor is working, such tip lights create a virtual disk, that make the tilt-rotor aircraft visible in the darkness.

Impressive isn’t it?

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.