Osprey prepares for Aerial refueling

Sea Power, Nov 1998 by Burgess, Richard R

The Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft has gone through a series of aerial refueling "dry plugs" in preparation for actual aerial refueling tests to be conducted early next year. Shown here is Osprey No.10 approaching the refueling drogue of a KC-130F Hercules-assigned to the Force Aircraft Test Squadron at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md.-for one of over 100 contacts in nearly 12 hours of dry plug tests.

Wake survey tests-performed earlier with Osprey No. 8, which was flying with an instrumented nose boom attached-were conducted earlier to determine the aircraft's handling qualities in the turbulent wake of a tanker aircraft. "The results of those tests in the airplane mode were quite successful and showed very acceptable flying qualities," said Steve Grohsmeyer, Boeing senior V-22 experimental test pilot.

"I am pleasantly surprised at the handling qualities in the airplane mode-it handles beautifully," said Tom MacDonald, Boeing's chief test pilot. "The concerns with this big turboprop tiltrotor are clearance and the many moving parts outside the aircraft in proximity to the tanker, but we are pleased that we have very precise closure control and that we can move up, stop, and back out very well and predictably."

Although no fuel was transferred during the dry-plug flights, the tests verified the ability of the V-22 "to maintain a very stable attitude while in the receive position directly behind the giveaway aircraft," said John Buyers, Bell-Boeing's V-22 program director at Patuxent River. "The inflight refueling capability," he pointed out, "will permit the V-22 to deploy worldwide."

Wake survey and dry-plug tests are scheduled to continue for at least six more months. Early next year, ground tests-in which the refueling probe is hooked up to a drogue and fuel is actually transferred-will be conducted, and will be followed by actual aerial-refueling test flights. "We have to qualify the fuel system and hardware to accept the fuel in order to do actual refueling in the airplane mode," said Maj. Kevin Gross, a V-22 experimental test pilot. "When this happens, we can complete the aerial refueling flight test behind a KC130 with wet refueling."