thestar.com

Terry Arnold, the V-22 communications manager for Bell Helicopter/ Textron of Fort Worth, the builder of the Osprey's wings and rotors, said: "That plane right out there is probably going to be in the Smithsonian someday - that very airplane!"

"This is a very exciting event," said Richard L. Grant, vice- president for the V-22 program at Boeing Helicopter Co., the Boeing Co. division in Ridley Township that makes the Osprey's fuselage and tail. "People have said this is the biggest step in aviation since the advent of the jet engine."

The tilting rotors aren't the Osprey's only innovations. Only 20 per cent of the aircraft is made of metal, with the rest mostly fibreglass and composite materials made of graphite epoxy laminates. The new, lighter materials are crucial to an aircraft that must take off like a helicopter.