DALLAS, Tx. – In a moment of rare introspection, the U.S. military is reportedly considering the once-unthinkable: maybe the V-22 Osprey, the infamous tilt-rotor aircraft, wasn't such a great idea after all.
The soul-searching comes after decades of defending the aircraft's exorbitant costs, high-profile crashes, and tendency to be more temperamental than a two-star general passed over for that third star.
The Osprey was originally pitched as the aviation equivalent of a Swiss Army knife but turned out to be more of a military-grade plastic spork — expensive, not particularly good at any one thing, and prone to snapping under pressure.