1960s quad-prop tiltrotor seen as forerunner of the V-22 Osprey
Efforts by US manufacturers to combine helicopter and turboprop capabilities date to the 1950s, and one 1960s quad-prop tiltrotor is being recalled as an early step toward the V-22 Osprey.
The V-22 Osprey has matured as a tiltrotor aircraft, and its production run is ending. The US Air Force received its final CV-22 Ospreys in 2025, and the Marine Corps finished its much larger order in July 2026.
About 11 US Navy Ospreys remain to be delivered before production is expected to close.
The Osprey had precedents. Since the 1950s, US industry had worked on designs pairing a helicopter's vertical lift with a turboprop's speed and range. One of those efforts, a quad-prop tiltrotor built in the 1960s, is now remembered as an early forerunner of the concept that produced the V-22 roughly four decades later.
Sources
- simpleflying.comThe Forgotten 1960s Quad-Prop Tiltrotor That Foreshadowed The V-22 Osprey By 40 Years