KYW Flashback: Boeing Plant In Delco Changes Course
RIDLEY PARK, Pa. (CBS) - The sprawling Boeing Plant in Ridley Park was on life support when a revolutionary concept in aviation changed its course.
The Marine Corps needed a new aircraft to improve its ability to move troops and equipment for combat or rescue missions. A KYW reporter recalls that when the first V-22 Osprey was unveiled in flight at the plant, he never knew it was coming until the sound of thunder boomed directly overhead.
Something new was in the air, and it was designed and built by a partnership between Boeing and Bell of Texas.
It was 1989 and KYW listeners heard a description of the aircrafts unique ability to take off like a helicopter, tilt its rotors 90 degrees and then sprint away with the speed of a plane.
The Osprey put the brakes on job reductions at the plant. But crashes and costs were producing skeptics.
The Osprey prevailed and to date over 200 are in the air.