The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter

by James R. Chiles

From transforming the ways of war to offering godlike views of inaccessible spots, revolutionizing rescues worldwide, and providing some of our most-watched TV moments—including the cloud of newscopters that trailed O. J. Simpson’s Bronco—the helicopter is far more capable than early inventors expected. Now James Chiles profiles the many helicoptrians who contributed to the development of this amazing machine, and pays tribute to the selfless heroism of pilots and crews. A virtual flying lesson and scientific adventure tale, The God Machine is more than the history of an invention; it is a journey into the minds of imaginative thinkers and a fascinating look at the ways they changed our world.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to be into helicopters to enjoy this book. It's not a deep, purely academic dive, but there are only a few "funny, interesting" tidbits a-la Mary Roach. It is a book about the history of the helo by a person who loves (and learned to fly) heloes.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best bits dive deep into helicopter technology and the personalities at its leading edge, but a third of the book is devoted to Vietnam with minimal attention paid to the war's helicopters.

[Hayley Hasik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid overview of heli development

[Joaquin · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I was in the Navy, I had several opportunities to take short rides in many different types of helicopters. Every ride pretty much started out the same way: lots of noise, an unexpectedly large amount of shuddering and shaking before takeoff, and then, after leaving the ground, the thought: "I cannot believe this F-ing things flies." I've always been amazed by the vast number of things that have to go just right for a helicopter to function properly. It's like an airplane - only with two sets of wings that spin and twist in opposite directions and/or perpendicular to each other.
So I was totally stoked to see this 'microhistory' about the development of the helicopter. My favorite parts of the book that I was able to get through were about the physics behind helicopter flight and the different problems that had to be overcome. However, I was ultimately bored to the point of abandoning the book because the ratio of compelling, overarching storyline to technical detail was too small. It's clear that the history of the helicopter has more than its fair share of eccentrics and no-shitter stories. I would have been happier if they were more dominant in the book.

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning and ending chapters of this book were so good! The beginning covered exactly what I wanted to find out from this book: how helicopters work/fly/are built. Even minute details are not left out, and it’s written from a unique perspective because the author tried to learn to fly helicopters himself.

The ending chapters were also cool because they discussed all the ways helicopters are used today, including detailed accounts of rescues and the reasons behind the surprising scarcity of helipads.

However, only three stars from me because the middle was basically a war history, and that is simply not interesting to me at all and I didn’t expect it. If you like reading about a variety of battles and war tactics as they relate to the use of helicopters during WWII, Korea, and especially Vietnam, then you would find this much more interesting.

Overall quite informative, and I learned so much about this unique aircraft.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way more than I ever wanted to know about helicopters...but the author can at least make the topic interesting here and there. Unfortunate title, too, because many readers may not catch the reference to "deus ex machina" unless they read the author's introduction.

[Michael Pryor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, technical, comprehensive.