Thoughts on the V-22 crash in Morocco

I know the V-22
has posted a
pretty good record, but I keep on thinking of what a Pentagon official once
said to me: No one has ever built a helicopter with jet-engine-like hydraulic
pressures (5,000 ppsi)
inside its nacelles -- and then landed that aircraft in dusty spots where jet
engines fear to go. He said that one little bit of dust inside the nacelle
could weaken the hydraulic tubing, which if it sprang a leak would shoot fluid
so powerfully that it could cut off a man's arm.

When I was a military reporter, this
was the only aircraft I promised my wife I'd never fly in.