Boeing Osprey VTOL

[Kenty]

Just had, what looks like, three Boeing V-22 Osprey fly over the house (South Lincs).
Any ideas what they might be doing in the UK? Has the RAF or Navy got any of these?

[anonymous-user]

I was just about to post that! Three CV-22 Osprey's just flew over York at 10:42 heading NNW.
I thought they were US special ops!

[Eric Mc]

They are used for all sorts of purposes by the US Air Force, Marines and Navy.

[anonymous-user]

An old BBC report is saying that we started taking delivery in 2013 and were planning to have eight based at RAF Mildenhall. That would make Lincolnshire and York on a flightpath to Scotland.
Impressive looking planes.

[Europa1]

YorkshireWhisky said:

An old BBC report is saying that we started taking delivery in 2013 and were planning to have eight based at RAF Mildenhall. That would make Lincolnshire and York on a flightpath to Scotland.
Impressive looking planes.

Don't the RAF has any. Mildenhall is a US base only.

[Boatbuoy]

Most likely some of the USAF fleet based at RAF Mildenhall.

Previous thread here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=153...

[anonymous-user]

Europa1 said:

Don't the RAF has any. Mildenhall is a US base only.

Good point, the BBC report says "A Suffolk airbase has taken delivery of two £43m CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft." but it does say 'US air force' later in the piece when talking about having eight in total.

[Kenty]

YorkshireWhisky said:

I was just about to post that! Three CV-22 Osprey's just flew over York at 10:42 heading NNW.
I thought they were US special ops!

Boston to York in 14mins - impressive! They were noisy and had a distinctive sound. Think they must be Mildenhall ones, flying the approx track as far as i know!

[baldy1926]

When Mildenhall closes in 4 years i believe they will move to Germany.

[Shar2]

Further to Erics answer, the Royal Navy has recently expressed an interest in buying the Osprey.

[anonymous-user]

Shar2 said:

Further to Erics answer, the Royal Navy has recently expressed an interest in buying the Osprey.

Indeed, In fact it's been talked about a number of times. Unfortunately, I can't see the MOD finding anything like enough pennies down the back of the sofa.

They would be excellent for special forces ops and potentially for AAR, but the issue is that 90% of the time they'd be doing the same things that helicopters do, for a lot less money.

[FourWheelDrift]

We couldn't afford the running costs.

[ecsrobin]

It has been discussed on here before, but there's a reason they don't use an osprey for Marine1 and that's the safety record https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_inci...

[rupert the dog]

Kenty said:

Boston to York in 14mins - impressive! They were noisy and had a distinctive sound. Think they must be Mildenhall ones, flying the approx track as far as i know!

Flew over here about an hour ago - but we are only 15 miles or so from Mildenhall.

[maffski]

Inkyfingers said:

Indeed, In fact it's been talked about a number of times. Unfortunately, I can't see the MOD finding anything like enough pennies down the back of the sofa.

They would be excellent for special forces ops and potentially for AAR, but the issue is that 90% of the time they'd be doing the same things that helicopters do, for a lot less money.

The US Marines have been testing it out as a resupply option for carrying replacement F-35 engine cores.

[markmullen]

They come over York most Tuesday evenings, between 1930 and 2100, very distinctive noise, make a Chinook sound subtle.

[Brigand]

According to the "United States Air Force Air Power Yearbook 2016" (an impulse buy to read on a long journey!) they will have been V-22's from RAF Mildenhall, belonging to the 352nd Special Operations Wing. I've seen them a couple of times down here in Kent, and are quite a sight and sound.

[Europa1]

FourWheelDrift said:

We couldn't afford the running costs.

Indeed - the Royal Navy needs to spend its limited cash on fixing our state of the art destroyers that seem to have been built with not enough electricity fitted.

[Trevatanus]

FourWheelDrift said:

We couldn't afford the running costs.

Or the fatalities.
They're not the safest of aircraft. The US President has one, but is not allowed to fly on it, due to it being deemed not as safe as they would like.
As for Mildenhall closing, in light of the US announcing yesterday that they were to quadruple military spending in Europe, I wouldn't take that as read yet.

[baldy1926]

As for Mildenhall closing, in light of the US announcing yesterday that they were to quadruple military spending in Europe, I wouldn't take that as read yet.
[/quote]

The mod have already said its being sold for housing so someone will have to make their mind up soon