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Hurlburt Ospreys training in N.C.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A new bird is taking flight from the Asheville Regional Airport — the Air Force’s CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Crews piloting the aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane have been using western North Carolina for training missions, an airport official said.

“We’re expecting them back sometime later this fall,” said spokeswoman Patti Michel. “The earliest would be mid-October.”

The Ospreys are based at Hurlburt Field, Fla., as part of the 8th Special Operations Squadron and have been used this summer to train over the area’s rugged, mountainous terrain, she said.

Michel said the unit, known as the “Blackbirds,” replaces the 20th Special Operations Squadron that trained in Asheville with MH-53 Pave Low helicopters.

The CV-22 will be used by the Air Force to conduct long-range infiltration and exfiltration missions and to re-supply missions for special operations forces.

The Marine Corps’ variant of the same aircraft, the MV-22, is headed into combat for the first time. The Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 and 10 Ospreys left a week ago from the New River Air Station next to Camp Lejeune.

The squadron is deployed to Al-Asad Airfield in Iraq and will spend about seven months transporting troops, supplies and cargo.

The aircraft has been in development since the 1970s and was often delayed after mechanical failures and fatal crashes. In 2000, a crash in Arizona killed all 19 Marines aboard and another near Camp Lejeune killed four.

The Air Force is expecting to use the Osprey in combat by 2009. The first operational CV-22 aircraft were delivered to the Hurlburt Field in January. A total of 50 are expected to be delivered there by 2017, according to the Air Force.

The military plans to eventually operate 458 Ospreys, with 360 for the Marines and the others used by the Navy and Air Force.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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