"Henry J Cobb" wrote in message
...
The Quad Tiltrotor is too big to be hangared on any ship the Navy has so
it really needs to operate from land bases.

Would it just be used for delivering people and small items to flatops
(full carriers and Ampihbs) or use the ships as lillypads to support deep
raids?

Which service will actually buy any? Could the Marines buy a few to
support the KC-130 mission? (It would make a dandy tanker for helicopters
and V-22s, but it needs a land base unless it's going to sit on the
flightdeck all the time.)

How about the Air Force, would they use it to bring in real land vehicles
for CV-22 raids? How about to support forward Army bases?

As a huge, slow, unarmored transport it's going to make a dandy target, so
what do you escort it with?

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/business/15427610.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...rcraft/qtr.htm

-HJC

Have you seen this article?:

http://www.projo.com/business/conten...d.2ca5e94.html

I guess it is going to be the size of a C-130. It would appear to be much
more useful for the Army than the V-22. If they leave off the extra
machinery for stowing the wings and engines for transport, presumably its
performance will be better. So, if it has anything like the range of a
C130, it could behave as something of a C130 replacement. You would just
have to look at how C130s are deployed, and make changes for the VSTOL
capability.

Now, it would be a very appealing AC to bring heavy equipment with the
initial wave of a V-22 amphibious assault. But you are correct, it would be
big, and it might be assumed that the Marines wouldn't be able to take many
with them, and the ones they take would have to be configurable to fit some
kind of large aircraft carrier so that they don't displace too many aircraft
needed for carrier defense and air superiorty.

Maybe there will be two versions, one for USAF without the wing stowing
ability, and one for the Marines/Navy with the ability to stow wings and
engines.

This brings another question. If the wings on the QTR rotate like they do
on the V-22, how will they be able to accomplish this without the wings or
the engines, hitting each other? Surely they couldn't fold the wingtips up
with the heavy engines and the needed stiffness of its wings. I suppose
they would have to offset the wings vertically, but how would this affect
flight performance in airplane and vertical modes? It is an interesting
area and I am sure I am only scratching the surface.

Escorts? If it can't keep up with the V-22s, it shouldn't be bought by the
Marines. If it is being used as part of an amphibious assault with V-22s,
it would presumably have the same Navy and Marine F-18/F-14/AV-8B (or their
repalcements) escorts covering the entire assault.