ERMA – A Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport plane touched down briefly at Cape May Airport on Friday, Nov. 29, after being sighted over Rio Grande.
A member of the Herald staff spotted it over Rio Grande shortly after noon, the aircraft looking like a large drone. It was soon apparent that the plane was in fact a tilt-rotor aircraft and was making its way to the airport.
At the airport, a few people were watching the plane land and taking pictures with their phones. One man told a reporter that the plane was an Osprey, and they were used by the Air Force. A quick Google search confirmed that the cargo/transport plane is in fact used by the Air Force, Marines and Navy.
Online information indicates that the U.S. military determined that, as a result of the Iran hostage crisis in 1980, there was a need for an aircraft that was more than a plane and more than a helicopter. The Osprey can cruise like an airplane, but because of the tilt rotors can make short landings and takeoffs. It is a combined effort of Bell Helicopters and the Boeing Corp. As of 2020, there have been 400 Ospreys built.
The Herald asked James Salmon, public information officer with the Delaware River and Bay Authority, which operates the airport, how often Ospreys land there.
“The Boeing V-22 Osprey was probably on a test flight or performing ‘touch and goes’ – quick landing and immediately taking off. Sighting one at WWD is an unusual occurrence,” said Salmon, using the call letters for the airport.
The public information office at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst did not respond to a call and to an email requesting information on the plane, or if it originated there.
The call letters historically refer to Naval Air Station-Wildwood, which was the name of the facility during World War II, when it was active as a training center for Navy pilots. Forty-two pilots died in accidents over the several years NASW operated as a training base.
The NASW Museum at the airport houses decommissioned military aircraft and has historic aircraft fly in for various events, but rarely sees active military aircraft touch down there.
