The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 OspreyA fascinating and authoritative narrative history of the V-22 Osprey, revealing the inside story of the most controversial piece of military hardware ever developed for the United States Marine Corps. When the Marines decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid “tiltrotor” called the V-22 Osprey, they saw it as their dream machine. The tiltrotor was the aviation equivalent of finding the Northwest Passage: an aircraft able to take off, land, and hover with the agility of a helicopter yet fly as fast and as far as an airplane. Many predicted it would reshape civilian aviation. The Marines saw it as key to their very survival. By 2000, the Osprey was nine years late and billions over budget, bedeviled by technological hurdles, business rivalries, and an epic political battle over whether to build it at all. Opponents called it one of the worst boondoggles in Pentagon history. The Marines were eager to put it into service anyway. Then two crashes killed twenty-three Marines. They still refused to abandon the Osprey, even after the Corps’ own proud reputation was tarnished by a national scandal over accusations that a commander had ordered subordinates to lie about the aircraft’s problems. Based on in-depth research and hundreds of interviews, The Dream Machine recounts the Marines’ quarter-century struggle to get the Osprey into combat. Whittle takes the reader from the halls of the Pentagon and Congress to the war zone of Iraq, from the engineer’s drafting table to the cockpits of the civilian and Marine pilots who risked their lives flying the Osprey—and sometimes lost them. He reveals the methods, motives, and obsessions of those who designed, sold, bought, flew, and fought for the tiltrotor. These stories, including never before published eyewitness accounts of the crashes that made the Osprey notorious, not only chronicle an extraordinary chapter in Marine Corps history, but also provide a fascinating look at a machine that could still revolutionize air travel. |
Contents
The Customer | |
The Sale | |
The Machine | |
Young Winstons Osprey | |
One Period of Darkness | |
Survivability | |
You Want It Bad You Get It | |
The Dark Ages | |
Phoenix | |
Other editions - View all
The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey Richard Whittle No preview available - 2011 |
The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey Richard Whittle No preview available - 2010 |
The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey Richard Whittle No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Air Force aircraft airplane Al Asad Aldridge Armed Services Army asked Atkins Autogiro aviation Bell and Boeing Bell Helicopter Bell Helicopter Textron Bell’s BellBoeing Bianca blades Blot Boeing Helicopter Boeing Vertol called Cheney Cheney’s civilian cockpit commandant companies Congress crash crew chiefs Curt Weldon defense Dick Spivey dream machine Dunn Dunnivan email engineers Erhart feet flew flight test flown former Fort Worth fuselage going Headquarters Marine Corps Herrick Horner hydraulic interviews Iraq Kelley landing later Lehman Macdonald Magnus Marana Marine Corps marketing McCorkle mechanics military mission Moffitt MOTT nacelles NASA Navair Naval Navy needed OPEVAL Osprey Osprey program Osprey’s Paris Air Show Pentagon president Quantico River Rivolo Rock rotor Schaefer secretary Senate Sikorsky Spivey’s squadron Sullivan Sweaney talk test pilots Textron tilted tiltrotor told troops USMC V22 Osprey vortex ring wanted Washington Weldon Wernicke Wilson wing