Aviation News-Osprey's coming to the UK.

**wonwinglo** · 05-05-2006

V-22: 'Osprey Dawn' On Atlantic As Two Birds Prepare For UK Flight.
Final preparations for two USMC Ospreys to transit non-stop from Canada to the UK to attend this year's upcoming Farnborough Air Show are underway at
MCAS New River.
The aircraft - from VMX-22, the operational test squadron - will make the trip together, their route being New River - Goose Bay, direct to the show
site itself on July 10.
The final leg - which will involve an aerial refuelling to stay comfortably above critical reserve levels - will be some 2100 nautical miles in length.
A C-130 tanker aircraft will accompany them.
The Marines aren't necessarily planning the 'transat' trip to show off its long range capability.
'It's just ther most practical way to get there,' says a NAVAIR spokesman, Jamie D'Arcy.
'T o us, we never thought of doing it another way - although I accept most people are thinking we'll probably come by ship or in the back of a C-17.'
Nevertheless, for the two Ospreys - Block A models in the MV-22 series - completion of the journey will be something of a PR coup.
Osprey proponents have always pushed its long range abilities, but so far have had few opportunities - if any - to demonstrate them. Doing so at a major event like Farnborough will 'certainly help make the point,' D'Arcy agrees.
Once at the show - which begins July 17 - quite a propaganda blitz is planned in support of the two aircraft, which haven't been seen in Europe for a number of years (one aircraft was transported by ship to the Paris Air Show in the early 1990s, where it flew.)Bell/Boeing will be pulling out the stops and have commandeered the hill looking down the main runway as their V-22 headquarters for the event.
A major push is on to interest potential customers in the aircraft as its initial operational capability date - ready for missions - with the Marines nears.