Comments by "Tim Trewyn" (@timtrewyn453) on "The V-22 Osprey and why it keeps crashing" video.

  1. When I was in the USAF, we implemented a more intense checklist for each aircraft in phase inspection, a periodic (three months, typically) mandatory removal of each aircraft to the hangar to put it through the checklist. The result of this was that in-flight failures of our system were notably reduced. The checklist did put pressure on the supply system, because we were detecting early signs of failure sooner and thus changing out components more often. We increased the number of parts being ordered in advanced to they were ready as soon as the aircraft entered the hangar. When flight crews were asked about the reliability of our system, they reported it as high, with other system failures more frequently getting their attention. We had aircraft get to the next phase inspection with no failures in our system in between those inspections. Granted, a failure in our system would not cause the aircraft to crash, but its mission would be a failure, jeopardizing another crew. I was surprised to hear this video say that there were some components of the Osprey that cannot be inspected in some fashion in order to prevent catastrophic failure. To me, those components then need to have an operating hour limit to provide a margin of safety. They also need to have some form of testing prior to first installation, so there can be some confidence in the life of the component. With various forms of Non-Destructive Inspection and manufacturing quality control available, I find the idea of some components just being essentially wild cards hard to accept. The design of the aircraft obviously succeeds for thousands of flight hours. I think this is a maintenance issue. We don't want crews seeing all these alarms so often. Alarms should be rare and generate the appropriate fear.
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