Pilots Discuss Use of Osprey

I agree with you. See responses to 4 and 5.

I understand your concern. Any aircraft not a helicopter can't auto-rotate either. Fortunately, the MV-22 does have a wing. While helicopters don't glide and fixed wing airplanes don't auto-rotate, it's not a helicopter and not an airplane; it is a tilt rotor. We try to exploit elements of both. In VTOL mode pilots are trained to exploit the altitude and the airspeed they have at the time of the failure to make the best use of the current aircraft energy state to arrest the rate of descent with the wing and with the rotors.

To more specifically answer the question, our single engine procedure (where an immediate landing is not possible) is to climb and transition to airplane mode (if you are not already in that mode). From there, pilots are trained to a Precautionary Emergency Landing (PEL) profile. In the PEL profile, pilots may adjust to an anticipated dual engine failure, where they put the aircraft into an advantageous position (gain altitude, set flap position, activate auxiliary power unit, jettison fuel, turn toward an intended point of landing, determine gear up or down, etc) in case the second engine were to fail. In the event of a second engine failure, the pilot is already in airplane mode, and he will execute a dual engine failure landing just like any other fixed wing aircraft.

If an aircraft were to suffer an engine failure at or near simultaneously with the other engine in VTOL mode, and the pilot does not have the altitude to get the nacelles all the way over into airplane mode for a glide, then the procedures are to roll the nacelles all the way back and maintain airspeed. Since we are only in this mode for takeoff and landing, then the landing site is (hopefully) in close proximity. The flight control software recognizes the failure mode and releases normal interlocks so the pilot can get more authority over the nacelles, flight control surfaces and blade pitch. Pilots will load the rotors with airspeed and flap setting, then conduct a run-on landing if terrain allows it, or fly a no-hover approach to a full flair. In both conditions pilots will still exploit the lift of the wing and add collective pitch at the bottom for the remaining rotor energy to cushion.