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Friday October 18, 2002

MV-22 Aircraft #21 Arrives at Patuxent River

PATUXENT RIVER, Maryland, USA ( Bell Boeing Joint Program Office Press Release ) - An MV-21 Osprey, Aircraft #21, the first LRIP (low rate initial production) V-22 Osprey to return to flight status flew from Bell Helicopter's Tiltrotor Operations Center, Amarillo, Texas, to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland on Saturday, October 12, 2002. Aircraft #21 Departed Amarillo at 8:15 AM CDT, flew 5.3 flight hours on three legs from Amarillo to Pax River, stopping for fuel in Little Rock, Arkansas and Marietta, Georgia before arriving at PAX River at 4:00 PM EDT. The aircraft flew at 15,000 feet and had a true airspeed of 295-300 knots over the trip. Aircraft #21 arrived at Pax River one week earlier than scheduled.

Currently there are three Ospreys at Pax River. Two are EMD (engineering & manufacturing development) aircraft and one LRIP aircraft. Aircraft #10 returned to flight status in May 2002 and Aircraft #8 is scheduled to return to flight status shortly. In addition there are two CV-22 Ospreys at Edwards AFB, California. Both are EMD aircraft. The CV-22 is the Air Force variant of the V-22 for Special Operations Command.

  • V-22 Osprey page
  • Bell timeline
  • Boeing timeline