Helicopters over Columbia Heights aren’t rare, with many police, military, or civilian birds (or Marine One) traversing the skies on a regular basis. However, today was unusual, in that a very loud, very low aircraft seemed to be circling the area. It was so loud that my windows were shaking, which I can’t remember happening before.
Twitter user @grahammcdonald snapped a picture of the machine, which is a V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft. That means it can take off like a helicopter but its twin rotors can tilt so it can fly like a plane as well.
They’re used frequently in the military, like in Afghanistan to transport troops, and there’s also one in the Presidential helicopter fleet.
It’s unclear what that one was doing in the skies above our neighborhood — exercises, perhaps? Though another one was spotted last Thursday as well near the Pentagon, with a guess that it was for a funeral at Arlington Cemetery.
Weird. Did you see (or hear) the Osprey today?
Photo by @grahammcdonald
