A quite unusual photo caught a U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command’s CV-22 Osprey with the full moon in the background.
Taken close to RAF Mildenhall, UK, on Oct. 7, 2014, by Gary Chadwick, the spectacular photo in this article shows a U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft with the 7th SOS (Special Operations Squadron) flying a night mission with a full moon in the background.
The 7th SOS is a component squadron of the 352nd SOG (Special Operations Group) whose role is infiltration and exfiltration of troops from hostile, sensitive, behind-the-enemy-lines locations.
Along with the Ospreys, the Squadron flies the MC-130H Combat Talon II (that will eventually be replaced by the MC-130J Commando II) that, along with supporting special operations (including PSYOPS) in contested airspace, in adverse weather conditions, at low-level and long range, can also perform HAAR (Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling) missions.
Taken from different POV (Pointsof View) the following video shows the CV-22 Osprey as it lands at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, in Dayton, Ohio, on Dec. 12, 2013.
The (somehow controversial) CV-22 will be one of the highlights of the museum’s new 224,000 square-foot building where the tilt-rotor aircraft will tell both the story of the Osprey in the Air Force Special Operations Command, and the culminations of decades of research and development, from the early tilt-rotor prototype, the Bell Helicopter Textron XV-3.
Two CV-22 Osprey of the AFSOC were hit by small arms fire during an evacuation mission from South Sudan last month.
With CV-22s recently joining the U.S. Special Operations Forces in the UK, British aircraft enthusiasts and spotters will quickly get used to something common people may not immediately recognise: 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 CV-22s 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: one visible from above, the other from the bottom.
Once the rotor is working, such tip lights create a virtual disk, that make the tilt-rotor aircraft visible in the darkness, as the image below, taken by David Mackey of Macks Aviation Photography, shows.
The photograph is particularly interesting because unlike all the other long-exposure high-ISO images you can find on the web, it shows an Osprey more or less as a human eye sees it.
The image was captured on Aug. 15 and depicts “KNIFE71” departing RAF Mildenhall, in the UK.
On Jun. 14, a U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey made a landing aboard a Japanese ship near U.S. West Coast.
The Osprey landed on a Japanese heli-carrier-destroyer Hyūga, during a 18-day exercise.
Taking into the consideration the unfavourable opinion of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in Japan, stemming from the crashes involving CV-22s in Florida and Morocco this is an important step forward, possibly a part of a Public Relations campaign aimed at advertising the Osprey as a safe aircraft.
A campaign that has achieved some important results, at least domestically, as Boeing has recently been awarded a $6.5 Billion Order for 99 more Ospreys: 92 MV-22s and 7 CV-22s.
The PR campaign carried out since last year included showing off M/CV-22’s capabilities in many combat scenarios (and airshows).
It was after additional warranties were given that Japanese government accepted the fact that 12 Ospreys are to be stationed in Okinawa.
Deploying the Ospreys to Okinawa resulted in a large social protest in that region, as people were afraid one of the planes might crash in some of the densely populated areas over there.
The following video shows a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130J belonging to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352 escorting four MV-22 Ospreys belonging with the Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261 from Helmand province, Afghanistan, to the USS Iwo Jima in the Arabian Sea.
The footage shows the four MV-22s flying in a loose echelon formation: formation flying, in airplane mode, requires the aircraft to maintain a minimum cockpit-to-cockpit separation of 250 ft along the bearing line. With less than 50 ft step up/down, pilots should avoid lead aircrafts’ 5-7 O’clock to prevent wake interaction, a serious flight safety issue that can result in an uncontrollable roll and consequent crash.
Dealing with the KC-130J, it is a tactical asset with the unique capability to be able to refuel either combat planes, helicopters (HAAR – Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling) and tilt-rotor aircraft.
Unlike strategic tankers, that can accompany and refuel trailing planes on long-range ferry flights, the Hercules is suited for round-trip AAR missions within 1,000 miles from the departure airport. At that distance the KC-130J can dispense over 45,000 lbs of fuel to its receivers.
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