An Unwelcome Start To 'Self-Deployment' Demo Flight

One of two MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors enroute to England for the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough airshows suffered compressor stalls in an engine, and was forced Monday to put down in Iceland instead.

As Aero-News reported last month, the aircraft were flying to England not just to be displayed at the two international air shows, but also to demonstrate the Osprey's ability to "self-deploy" by refueling in flight. The engine problem -- not necessarily an uncommon occurrence -- does cast an unwelcome shadow on the start of that trip... which was intended to prove, once and for all, that the Osprey's problems were behind it.

"It's not the way you want to start a deployment tour, but on the other hand, this sounds like a low-tech issue," said aerospace industry analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group.

The Osprey was about four hours into a scheduled nine-hour flight to England, Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Scott Fazekas told the Dallas Morning News. A spare Rolls-Royce AE1107C turbofan engine will be flown to Iceland from Farnborough -- where it had been sent along with support personnel for the air show.

"They're going to replace the engine there on site," Lt. Col. Fazekas said. "A compressor stall doesn't necessarily require an engine replacement; they just decided to do that in this case.

Another analyst recalled the British Airways 747 that lost an engine due to compressor stalls on takeoff from Los Angeles last year -- and flew on to England (of course, the 747 is powered by four turbofans, not two.)

"These kind of engine problems are very normal, not only within military aircraft, but in commercial aircraft," said Hans Weber. "[The stalls] can be harmless, but they can also mean there is internal damage to the engine."

"We're all very sensitized to worry about problems with the Osprey, sure," Weber said. "But this might not be something to worry about. We have to see what ultimately they find out about what caused it."

FMI: www.marines.mil, www.boeing.com/rotorcraft/military/v22/index.htm