Photo By Staff Sgt. John Suleski | Cpl. Kenneth P. Vanhorn, 2nd Marine Logistics Group parachute rigger, makes sure the...... read more read more
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MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. - When Marines are fighting on the ground, the last thing they need is to run out of supplies. However, the terrain doesn’t allow ground vehicles to reach those who need the supplies.
This is where aerial deliveries come into play. An MV-22B Osprey can haul much needed cargo over great distances, and then drop it to the ground with a parachute attached.
Pilots and crew chiefs of Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 365 trained for this kind of mission on two Ospreys, Nov. 22.
Each Osprey had two large tires that Marines dropped to the ground. Cpl. Kenneth P. Vanhorn, 2nd Marine Logistics Group parachute rigger from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, helped prepare the tires for aerial delivery.
To ready cargo for an aerial delivery, parachute riggers place cardboard with honeycomb shaped insides below the cargo to insulate it from the hard landing, said Vanhorn.
The honeycomb shape is structurally tough and doesn’t easily break.
The amount of protective material used depends on the type of cargo and parachute used for the drop.
The riggers used two types of parachutes on the tires, said Vanhorn. The smaller one stabilizes the cargo to drop in a single direction, but does not slow its descent so it needs more protective material.
The larger parachute does slow the descent, but allows the cargo to change direction during the descent and makes its landing point slightly unpredictable.
The type of parachute used depends on the cargo, said Vanhorn.
“Water, tires and MREs can be dropped safely with this one” said Vanhorn, motioning to the smaller parachute. “However, dropping ammunition with it would be a bad idea.”
Vanhorn helped load the four tires into the Ospreys. After that, the pilots and crew chiefs took off and headed toward the landing zone where they practiced dropping the cargo into a target location.
Cpl. Nicholas A. Ziegler, VMM-365 Osprey crew chief, said the training helped prepare the squadron for missions it might do during its next deployment to Afghanistan.
Aerial delivery takes coordination between pilots and crew chiefs and some math to get the cargo in the right place, said Ziegler.
An onboard computer helps crunch numbers, such as airspeed and elevation, he said. The computer was originally used on KC-130s to perform the same mission, but had been reconfigured for the Osprey.
“The mission of the Osprey is to transport cargo from some place to another place,” said Ziegler. “Dropping it out of the Osprey is just another way of doing it.”
| Date Taken: | 11.22.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 12.06.2011 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 80961 |
| Location: | NEW RIVER, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Ospreys deliver packages without touching ground, by SSgt John Suleski, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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