The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft program has successfully passed operational evaluation (opeval) by the U.S. Marine Corps and is moving into a phase that supporters in government and industry have anticipated for a long time—full-rate production. Since the program began in the early 1980s, there have been many ups and downs. Then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney tried to kill the V-22 in 1989 and four crashes slowed it, but every review—including 12 major ones between 1984 and 1999—cleared it, acknowledging, in effect, that it represents the future of vertical-lift flight.
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