Ospreys start to fly, but most still grounded

Published: Feb 14, 2007
Source: www.navytimes.com



Roughly two to three weeks will pass before all of the Defense Department's V-22 Ospreys will be back in the air after the fleet was grounded last week, a program spokesman said Tuesday.

The tilt-rotors were grounded Feb. 6 after a fault caused by a computer chip in the aircraft’s flight control computers was discovered during pre-flight testing at the Bell Boeing facility in Amarillo, Texas.

The Osprey has three flight control computers, which back each other up in case one malfunctions. The chip in question is responsible for switching over to a back-up computer. Testing found that the chip fails in extremely cold temperatures.continue..