MV-22B Osprey Lands at Owatonna Airport

A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey landed at the Owatonna Degner Regional Airport on Tuesday afternoon to refuel and make an overnight stop on its way to its next military base. It will fly out sometime Wednesday.

Airport manager Dave Beaver said it's the most expensive plane ever to have landed at the airport.

According to military.com, the MV-22 Osprey is the primary assault support aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps and has been deployed to support U.S. troops in combat since 2007. The Osprey is unique in that it uses two engines positioned on fixed wing tips housed in nacelles that rotate to allow the MV-22 to land and take off vertically, but achieve much faster flight than a helicopter by tilting the nacelles forward while in flight in a configuration similar to a fixed-wing aircraft, the website states.

Capt. Aaron Huffman, one of the crew members, said the Osprey's stop also serves as a recruitment tool, and some members of the Owatonna community got to look inside the massive aircraft.