The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (English Edition)

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		The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (English Edition)
		The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (English Edition)

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.

网友对The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey (English Edition)的评论

This book is a good read for anybody who spent some time working on this program in any capacity or for anyone that truly enjoys how aviation comes together (or perhaps how it cannot come together). As someone who worked on this program for several years, it was a great trip down memory lane. I was surprised to see how well insulated I was from the politics, and ego battles going on in senior management with respect to the design of the V-22. The old adage of too many cooks spoiling the soup is incredibly applicable to development of the Osprey. I should not be amazed (but I was anyhow) at the the number of design decisions where the VP/Director with 35 years of experience trumps a great engineer with 25 years of experience just because the VP/director has a big ego and wants to put his stamp on the program. There are a number of other power brokers from both the contractor and customer sides who also make unilateral decisions in the areas of requirements definition and budgeting. I sure hope weapon systems are developed a bit better nowadays....for the sake of my tax dollars.

Whittle's characterizations of the engineers and the facts seem to be fairly accurate. He did a good amount of research by interviewing a lot of the key folks who made an impact on the program. The book starts out a bit slow but once the XV-15 comes along, it starts to become very fascinating and revealing.

Great to read an account of the V-22 program that didn't have the left wing 60 Minutes, Time Magazine spin attached. This book gave me an opportunity to relive some of the days I spent as a member of the MOTT and the difficulties we were up against as we tried to bring the latest in aviation to the warfighter. The MOTT was more than a family and the relationships that were established then remain intact even today. To the men that gave their life in support of this program we owe them more than our thanks. And to Richard Whittle a salute for your efforts. Sempre Fi and Airpower!

Daron R Weishaar
Major, USAF (Ret)
V-22 Deputy Test Director for Software Analysis
V-22 MOTT (October 1996 - December 1998)

Richard Whittle's "The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey" is the best aviation book I've read in years. It is exactly what I look for, but rarely find, in an "airplane book." I enjoy heavy, detailed tomes about one narrow aspect of aviation, or about one specific aircraft, rather than broad tracts on wider ranges of material. I have little interest in books filled mostly with pretty pictures. I look for meaty, "tell-all" stories that I can sink my teeth into. "The Dream Machine" is just such a book--heavy on fascinating details and light on pictures (although there is an eight-page section of black-and-white photos). It hits my interest target spot-on.

Most people have probably at least heard of the "Osprey" tiltrotor, most likely via news reports about several crashes of V-22 prototypes in 1991, 1992 and 2000. These tragic events gave the aircraft a reputation for being unsafe and difficult to fly, even after billions of dollars had been spent trying to make it work. For many years, the "Osprey" was a political football, kicked back and forth by enthusiastic backers and equally vehement opponents. Several times during its 20-year-plus gestation period, especially in the aftermaths of the crashes, the program was on the very edge of cancellation. But it survived, and the radical V-22 entered service with the Marines in 2007 and performed with distinction in Iraq, where the dire predictions of its detractors did not come to pass. At long last, it came close to justifying the faith that its proponents had put in it for decades. "The Dream Machine" tells the whole complicated personal, political, technical and operational story of one of aviation's holy grails--a machine that can take off like a helicopter and cruise like an airplane.

Each of the book's 12 lengthy chapters covers a specific aspect or time period of the story. For example, Chapter One, "The Dream," presents an interesting summary of pre-Osprey designs, such as the 1931 Pitcairn Autogiro, most of which were unsuccessful because the technology to do the job simply did not exist at the time. Chapter Two "The Salesman," shows in great detail how aerospace companies sell their products to the military services. Using as an exemplar Bell Helicopter's Richard F. Spivey, the man who deserves most of the credit for selling the Pentagon on the concept of a tiltrotor aircraft (and, even more important, for keeping it sold), this chapter is fascinating, fast-paced and factual. Take it from a former aerospace engineer and marketeer--this is how it really is. Chapter Three, "The Customer," looks at the requirements development and procurement processes that the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps use to buy the military equipment they need. Chapter Four, "The Sale," shows how Bell's years-long marketing efforts, helped out by its experimental XV-15 tiltrotor that flew before enthralled audiences at the 1981 Paris Air Show, finally came to fruition when the Pentagon awarded the team of Bell and partner Boeing a contract for the V-22 "Osprey." The aircraft that the team designed is covered in Chapter Five, "The Machine." In addition to a detailed description of the design itself, this chapter contains an exceptionally good account of the compromises and trade-offs required when engineers try to develop a state-of-the-art aircraft. Technophiles will love this stuff!

The remaining chapters cover the trials, tribulations, personalities and political maneuvering involved in the V-22s pre-production, flight testing, maintenance, etc., all with, as far as I know, not one single technical error. Mr. Whittle has a marvelous ability to present complex technical issues (such as the "vortex ring state" phenomenon) in terms that any reasonably astute reader can understand. In particular, his presentations of the sequences of events that led to the four major prototype "Osprey" crashes (three of them fatal) are, bar none, the best descriptions of airplane crashes that I've ever read. As a private pilot who once crashed an aircraft myself, I can say with absolute candor that I felt like I was in the cockpit with the hapless crews when their machines went down. Just reading about the crashes was chilling.

I'll say it again: "The Dream Machine" is the best aviation book I've read in years. If you are at all interested in the "Osprey" itself, or in the process of designing, building, testing and operating a modern, high-tech aircraft, you should put it at the very top of your "must read" list. I can't say enough good words about it. BUY THIS BOOK!

Author Rick Whittle covers it all, the good, the bad, the doubtful and the best of the entire history of the V-22 Osprey, from the embryo concept of the tilt rotor in the early fifties to the combat deployment of the system in the 21st Century conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. No stone is left unturned, no source untapped - the author covers every facet, the military, industry, media, Congress and the pundits on all sides. He has skillfully described the commitment, drive, and persererance of the Marine Corps in setting their sights on the system needed for their "force of the future" and "missions not yet assigned". The Secretary of the Navy, the Corps, from the Commmandant to the last aviator and crewchief on the line, answered the call in making the Osprey what others might not have done. This book could easily be retitled, "Against all Odds" - as you read the highs and lows across the 26 years of its development to deployment. Yet, it flies proudly today because of the visionaries and believers, who picked up the pieces, moved ahead and made it even better. Read this book and you too will believe what great technological achievements are still possible today in the good old USA - following the old adage, "Where there is a will, there is a way".

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