The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22

The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey

WHEN THE MARINES decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid â€œtiltrotorâ€ 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.

Â

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 Corpsâ€™ own proud reputation was tarnished by a national scandal over accusations that a commander had ordered subordinates to lie about the aircraftâ€™s problems.

Â

Based on in-depth research and hundreds of interviews, The Dream Machine recounts the Marinesâ€™ 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 engineerâ€™s drafting table to the cockpits of the civilian and Marine pilots who risked their lives flying the Ospreyâ€”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.
Country USA
Brand Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer Simon & Schuster
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber Illustrated
ReleaseDate 2011-05-17
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781416562962

Country	USA
Brand	Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer	Simon & Schuster
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	Illustrated
ReleaseDate	2011-05-17
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781416562962

The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey

You might also like...