Was having a cig on the roof and saw an Apache Gunship go past, followed shortly by just about the single loudest air-vehicle I've ever heard. ~snip~ turns out UK bought some.. Sorry for potato photos, taken on my iPhone
I thought I remember reading that in papers, but couldn't be certain... would make more sense that they are running maneuvers over town.. its usually a pair of Chinooks, so perhaps this is their upgrade.
V22s are operated only by the US Marines and Air Force. It's a very expensive way of building a slightly faster helicopter, export orders haven't been forthcoming for it. Awesome way to pick a fight with the laws of physics though.
They must be US forces on exercise/secondment - I just checked current UK forces listings and we don't operate either the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey or Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. We do however operate the AgustaWestland Apache Longbow which is superior to it's American counterpart in every respect owing to being rebuilt with the finest components on the face of God's Earth Great spot though Mankz
I'd love to see them over our way, all the usual stuff (Chinook, Apache, C130s) comes right over the bottom of our garden, right in front of my bedroom window at a seriously low altitude. Can turn my head to the left while sat at my PC and see the C130 go past at some silly bank angle,
These passed directly over my place today, I was really quite taken aback I must admit. I'm not far from Heathrow so the odd military helicopter isn't that unusual, but a few fancy VTOLs are definitely not standard. Was cool to be able to see them in the flesh actually.
Not heard the V22's but remember seeing, hearing and feeling a Chinook at Duxford coming in for a plane style landing. Mind boggles at the forces those rotors take and produce.
At the hospital I work they had Chinooks doing test landings and take-offs on the field just outside the office block where my desk sat (for if they have to ship in wounded soldiers from Afghanistan; the helipad on the hospital roof don't cut it with these beasts). Quite a surreal sight: these things are larger than a coach bus and the two rotors seem to spin quite languidly, but the thing nevertheless takes off.
The only proper VTOL aircraft ever built was the Hawker Siddeley Harrier jet. I mean, look at that beauty! LOOK AT IT! Its central engine with the four rotating nozzles is just pure engineering elegance.
I always loved the bit where it *can* take off vertically, if you don't mind it burning half of (more? I forget) its fuel to do so!
My dad was a Pegasus engine engineer, Harriers were always around during my childhood, until the Navy and RAF took them out of service
They were sold to the US Marine Corp (who love them) and in true British fashion they had only recently been upgraded to top spec - oh and we sold them at a loss
