Gunnison – Tourists come here in summer to hit the trails and fishing holes and soak in the mountain scenery. But for the past month, they have gotten a gee-whiz bonus in the skies over Gunnison.
The military and its defense- contractor partners have been testing a new type of aircraft that is part helicopter and part airplane.
It looks and acts like nothing else that flies in and out of the tiny Gunnison County Airport.
The Osprey is an aircraft with rotors that point up to make the gun-metal gray, whalelike craft hover like a helicopter or tilt forward to let it fly like a plane.
When it takes off in the early mornings on test flights, visitors and locals often line the fence near the Gunnison County Aviation building to watch it rise straight into the air with a window-rattling clatter then tilt its rotors to streak quietly into the distance.
“People are asking about it. It’s something rare for such a little airport,” said Teresa Bryniarski, owner of the Alpine Inn, just down the road from the hangar where the $69.9 million plane sits when it isn’t flying.
The plane is undergoing testing in Gunnison because of its high altitude and long runway.
The plane has been tested in five other sites across the country, but this is the highest altitude of the sites, and the testing in Gunnison is being done with the heaviest loads.
“The weather patterns are great here,” said U.S. Marine Maj. Scott Trail, one of two test pilots flying the aircraft in Gunnison.
The Osprey is a joint project between a dozen aerospace companies headed by Boeing and Bell Helicopter.
It is scheduled to be in use in military operations next summer.
James Darcy, a public affairs officer for the V-22 Osprey Program based in Patuxent River, Md., said it will enable the military to carry twice as many soldiers into operations, to fly twice as fast and to go five times farther without refueling than standard aircraft used now.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.