Safety issue grounds CV-22

Air Force Special Operations Command grounded its CV-22 Osprey fleet Aug. 16 as part of a safety stand down. The stand down comes after two incidents of “hard clutch engagement” in the past six weeks. News of the stand down was first reported by Breaking Defense. Hard clutch engagement involves the clutch connecting the rotor gear box to the engine slipping, then catching hard, causing the aircraft to lurch. AFSOC has more than 50 Ospreys in its fleet, based out of Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Hurlburt Field, Fla., Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., RAF Mildenhall, U.K., and Yokota Air Base, Japan. The CV-22’s tiltrotor design allows it to take off and land vertically but pivot its engines forward for higher-speed and longer-range horizontal flight. (Source: Air Force Magazine, 08/17/22)