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

by Richard Whittle

A 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 U.S. 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 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.

Genres: Military Fiction, History, Nonfiction, Aviation, Technology, War, Audiobook

464 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2010

About the author

Richard Whittle, author of Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution (Henry Holt and Company, September 2014), and The Dream Machine: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey, (Simon & Schuster, 2010), is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and 2013-2014 Alfred V. Verville Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum. He writes occasionally for Air & Space Smithsonian magazine, the web site Breaking Defense, and other publications. Rick covered the Pentagon and other Washington beats for The Dallas Morning News for 22 years and previously covered defense and foreign policy for Congressional Quarterly. He has also been an editor at National Public Radio. His articles have been published in the Christian Science Monitor, a wide range of other newspapers and magazines, and on The Atlantic Monthly web site. He has also appeared on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” C-SPAN, National Public Radio and a variety of other television and radio broadcasts.

Reviews

[Michael Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

An in depth, and fairly enjoyable look into the development of the V-22 Osprey. I have to be honest, this book didn't exactly deliver to me what I wanted. I was much more interested in the technical aspects of the development. The engineering of the machine, how it was put together, what it's flaws were, and the overall difficulty of building a new type of aircraft. While the book does touch on these points, a large majority of the narrative is focused more on the political side. The bureaucracy of getting this project approved, and to keep it running for over 20 yours before the aircraft was finally delivered. As I said, it wasn't what I was originally looking for, but it was good all the same.

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edit 12/17/13: This article by Whittle is worth reading regarding the safety of the machine compared to standard helicopters. One statistic he did not cite was a comparison of the number of flying hours between crashes. http://breakingdefense.com/2012/04/os...


The Holy Grail of aviation engineering has always been a device that carries a reasonable load, can take off vertically, and flies safely and fast. The V-22 Osprey was supposed to fill those criteria. That it has entered service with the Marines after a tortured and crashed-filled history is perhaps remarkable.

The history of tilt-rotor and VTOL aircraft has been plagued by "dynamic instability." That's the unfortunate tendency of propellers to become very unstable unless the structure to which they are attached is of a certain configuration. Any kind of tilting mechanism changes that configuration as the propeller nacelle moves through the arc.

The tilt rotor resulted from a confluence of interests. The Marines needed a new vehicle to move troops around quickly, their vehicle of choice during WW II the amphibious landing craft having been made obsolete by the atomic bomb. Bell obviously wanted a new helicopter they could sell to the armed services. So when Spivey, Bell's tilt rotor advocate came along, their needs suited perfectly. The Marines existence was in jeopardy for a while, especially as Truman wanted to merge all the forces under one joint command. The Marines being the smallest and the need for boarding from ship to ship having disappeared, they were terrified they were being superseded. (Their lobbying effort was so powerful Truman was quoted as saying they had a propaganda machine as good as Stalin's. It was so good he was forced to apologize for making the statement.)

The catastrophe in the deserts of Iran in the failed attempt to rescue hostages, brought home the frailty of helicopters and the need for an alternative, adding additional fuel for tilt-rotors. (Note that if you have seen the promotional videos for the Osprey you can see how they cleverly suggest it would be immune to the sand problems. The propellers they say are used to clear sand away from the front so visibility is not impaired. I don’t know how much consideration they gave to the unit behind them. Personally, they seem awfully susceptible to the same kinds of issues. See 1:54 of this video for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWUThc... That just can't be good for the machinery.)

Ironically, it had been Iran, under the Shah, that had saved Bell Helicopters with huge contracts, so many that Bell at one time had 8,000 employees living in a town constructed for them by the Iranians. That all came quickly to an end following the Shah's overthrow. (For an excellent book of our the Shah came to power, I can recommend All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer.)

I suppose if any one person can claim credit for bring the Osprey to fruition it has to be Secretary of the Navy John Lehman who saw the XV-15 at the Paris Air Show and was so taken with it (or perhaps the full court press of Bell Helicopters) that he ordered the Navy, which controls the Marines' budget, to release funds for its development and to squash development of the 130 a new That coupled with Reagan's huge increases in defense spending made the program a virtual certainty.

The political machinations and shenanigans to get the Osprey built, as described by Whittle, were a wonder. Cheney, who was then Secretary of Defense, (1989-1993, and yes, government does appear to be more than incestuous) wanted to kill the program. Under orders to reduce the defense budget after the deficit busting years of the Reagan administration (George the First tried to hold the line on his “no new taxes” pledge), he and Congress played a back and forth game. This was by no means a partisan battle, proponents coming from districts that stood to gain from jobs created by the program. Cheney would order the Marine Corps not to support the program but they would enlist their Congressional allies to add items to the appropriations budgets insisting certain things be done. Cheney would refuse to spend the money (to my knowledge I don’t know if this strategy has even been tested in the courts, i.e., can the executive just not spend money the legislature has appropriated?), so Congress would threaten to reduce the money appropriated to run Cheney’s office, etc. Congress won.

Once they had politically maneuvered to get the contract, the real problems began. Bell’s wonderful little model was only proof of concept. Now they had to build a machine to meet the military’s specs: carrying 24 fully loaded troops, partly stealthy, advanced avionics, fly at 30,000 feet, *and* be able to fold the wings and be compact enough to fit on the elevator of a carrier. Each of these items added weight which meant bigger engines and rotors which meant more weight, ad infinitum. Not to mention they were building neither a rotor-wing nor a fixed-wing aircraft. It was a bizarre mélange of both which might wind of having none of the best characteristics of each.

Boeing-Vertol’s and Bell’s partnership led to further problems as each company had developed very different philosophies and cultures which often clashed. Boeing looked down on Bell as being an itty-bitty helicopter manufacturer while Boeing was used to large processes, but they were pissed at losing the 360 contract. Then again they were the only ones with experience with composites, an essential technology if they were to shed weight. The details of this partnership are alone worth the price of the book.

The book takes us through 2009 but will need to be updated since the future of the thing remains unclear. According to Wired Magazine's article, there have been three accidents involving Air Force V-22s costing four lives. You can watch hagiographic videos on YouTube put out by the Marines. The question I would ask is whether the added speed of "airplane mode", about 316 mph is really needed when existing helicopters it's intended to replace like the Sea Stallion can make about 200 mph. The one advantage would be air refueling and being able to travel longer distances but the payload is much less than conventional aircraft and while in helicopter mode they suffer from the same disadvantages. The way it folds up for transport is really amazing and quite an engineering feat. The V-22 is under consideration to replace the presidential helicopters. If I were president, I don’t think I'd get on one.

Maybe they should number their aircraft differently since the F-22 has a similar problematic accident record. All the services tend to blame people, the pilots, commanders, etc. when the flaw may well be the aircraft itself. In the meantime soldiers die and we hemorrhage money. It's also really ugly.

Note that Bell is now offering the V-280, a third generation tilt-rotor.

"An early version of the V-22, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but cruises like an airplane, crashed four times during testing between 1991 and 2000, killing 30 people. Since entering frontline service in 2009, three of the Air Force’s roughly 20 V-22s have been destroyed or badly damaged in accidents, at the cost of four lives. Likewise, in the last 10 years the Marines’ fleet of some 200 Ospreys has suffered around a dozen major accidents resulting in several destroyed aircraft and no fewer than three deaths."
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/...
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/...

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid and serious research, reporting, and history. Whittle spent (literally) years interviewing hundreds of people and pouring through mountains of documents to tell a detailed yet lively tale of the nearly 30-year evolution of one of the more unique aerial platforms deployed by the U.S. military (primarily the Marines). My guess is the book primarily attracts thin slices of a diverse audience, ranging from defense weapon systems geeks (like me), engineers, military historians, pilots, public-policy wonks, Marines, procurement/acquisition/program management gurus, to, no doubt, scandal-mongers.

Part helicopter, part airplane, the V-22 tiltrotor has frequently polarized and spurred strong, often visceral reactions, which Whittle fully develops. The detail, including plentiful (nearly 400) notes, a lengthy bibliography, a robust index, and a handful of photos (including one taken by the author's wife!), is there for those who crave it. But the book shines due to Whittle's focus on the human element - the visionaries, the proponents, the critics and skeptics, the leaders, legislators, and lobbyists, and - most poignantly - those whose sacrifices (which are all too often inherent in advancing the state of the art) demonstrated the truth in the saying: "The history of aviation is written in blood."

I'm not recommending this book for summer beach reading. But, for serious readers intrigued by the oft-tortured history and evolution of defense technology, I recommend it without hesitation.

[Joseph Quesenberry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history of the complex V-22 program. This well-documented and researched account is technical at times, yet digestible for casual readers. I would recommend as a comprehensive guide to anyone curious about tiltrotor technology, or the decades-long development process of Navair, Bell-Boeing, and the Defense Department that saw its funding nearly pulled for good numerous times.

I particularly enjoyed the theme of the “dream” of tiltrotor technology led by Dick Spivey, which may have been a bit idealistic and simplistic in the beginning. Yet it prevailed into the present day, where the V-22 is flown by Marines and USAF pilots regularly.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always been fascinated by military technology and especially the Osprey ever since I first heard about it. When this book first came out I immediately put it on my to read list and waited for my local library to get a copy and when it did I picked it up.

Whittle has done a great job not only telling the story of the V22 but laying the groundwork and background story how this aircraft got to where it is today. Whittle never gives a hint of his view until the very end so in my view he did an excellent job maintain a neutral position presenting the views of those for it and those against it. Both sides are well documented in their respective arguments even the fringe elements that seemed to want to kill it without giving it a chance or viewing it in person, i.e. Harry Dunn. One thing that I did find interesting was those against it seemed to apply a standard of perfection coming right off the production line, that the Osprey should not have had any flaws, redesign needs or unexpected problems.

While a tragedy that people died, it goes with the job. I can say this having served 8 years activity duty Army along 5 years very active Air Force Reserve and having nearly been killed on a training accident. The military is not a profession for those faint of heart as the last 11 years have shown. One point that only got mentioned once was that during the testing period more Marines were killed while on the CH-46 Sea Knight, the helicopter that the Osprey was intended to replace. If by the standards being applied to the Osprey were applied to Sea Knight that helicopter would have been taken out of service years before it was.

I highly recommended this book for those interested in how the Pentagon, Congress, technology and weapons procurement interoperate. It makes for a fascinating reading on how the “military-industrial complex” works.

[Julie Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does a pretty good job of giving a fair, unbiased assessment of the V-22 program. Although I did feel in the beginning that he favored Bell over Boeing, most of his account does not lean toward one side or another. Whittle does a great job of presenting nonfiction in an interesting and readable way. He develops his characters well; those closest to the program are described in more detail and some insight into their personalities is given. I thought this book might be too technical for me or there may be too many numbers, but Whittle presents the facts in a way that isn't too overwhelming and is easily digestible. This is surprisingly readable for a nonfiction book, and I think it will go on my shelf of "to read again someday" books. Very informative and enjoyable. The only thing I dislike about the book is when Whittle defines acronyms and gives the pronunciation for them (i.e. EAPS is pronounced "eeps"). I found this a little unnecessary and would have preferred a glossary of abbreviations instead. I know, kind of picky but it's the little things.

[Vanden DeVault · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dream Machine: The Untold History of The Notorious V-22 Osprey by Richard Whittle is about the creation of the helicopters being made or double prop helicopters and the early stages of the double prop helicopters. From the start to current day about the evolution of helicopters in good detail and would be a good source for research for projects or anything people would use it for. The V-22 Osprey had many prototypes that are shown and mentioned in the book like features and other things about the aircraft. It show how technological people had to be to make these types of aircraft’s. I think the book is a very good book to read and past time. By 2000, the Osprey was billions of dollars over budget and a decade behind schedule, its development bedeviled, by technological hurdles, manufacturing problems, business rivalries, and political battles. The book in total 454 pages, but 396 pages of the actual book.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a precautionary tale about becoming rigid in a plan. There is much to be learned from the Congressional/DoD fights. Sadly, I think much of this was repeated with the F-35 USMC variant. I would have liked a retrospective that looks at the ROI now that the platform has been fielded. The projected civil uses never came to fruition and the cost seems to be significantly more than projected. Ultimately, my question still is, “was this worth it?”

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting description of the Phoenix like rise of the V-22 Osprey. Made me wonder how the US Government ever gets anything done, and gave me a newfound knowledge of the miles of red tape the surround the Pentagon and it’s procurement process. No compelling quotes on this one, just a renewed appreciated for the Chinook!

[Camille Reeves · Rating 3 out of 5]

say you work in aerospace workout saying you work in aerospace

but also like, surpassed my expectations as a narrative tale, overall interesting for anyone who likes these sorts of topics

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dream Machine

4 of 5 stars

The 'Dream Machine' depicts the relatively well-known story of the aircraft known as the V-22, or "Osprey". I won't recount the entire lengthy tale of the Osprey program, which began back in 1982 and has cost more than $52 billion dollars and 30 lives prior to its first combat deployment to Iraq in 2007.

If you believe in big, innovative ideas they don't come much larger than wanting to develop a tilt-rotor aircraft. Prior to reading this book, I understood that the concept for such an aircraft covers decades. However, I did not know that such an idea had spurred the develop of prototypes all the way back to the 1930s. For some aviation enthusiasts, tilt-rotor aircraft that could hover like a helicopter and also fly like a plane - in other words, do everything in the air that a bird can do - was truly a "dream machine". There is a lot to love.

For the Osprey's detractors, there is plenty to hate. The program could be held up as an archetype of all that is wrong with the weapons acquisition process: busted budgets, lengthy delays, fatal crashes, political intrigue, mission-creep-laden requirements.

The truth is that whether you think the Osprey was a dream machine or a nightmare - you're probably right.

I had not previously understood why the Marine Corps was so enamored with the aircraft and took such efforts to ensure that it was develop. To put it simply, they felt as though the helicopter was something of an interim solution to support amphibious assaults (due to its limited speed based on physics and its limited range).

Below are some highlights of the book:

(In addition, I have some really good pictures, videos and links at the bottom. They are items that I dug up when I ran across something interesting in the book. I was particularly fascinated by the 3D animation that recreated the Marana, AZ crash.)


- "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex,” Eisenhower declared."

LIMITATIONS OF HELICOPTERS
- Limitations of helicopters: "One of the most important is the fact that when a helicopter flies forward, the speed of each rotor blade compared to the relative wind varies dramatically, depending on whether the blade is moving toward the front or rear of the aircraft. A blade moving forward and into the relative wind, an “advancing blade,” creates far more lift than one moving backward and away from the relative wind, a “retreating blade.”

WHY DO THE MARINES WANT IT?
- Marine Corps interest in aircraft: "the only service fully sold on the helicopter as a weapon of war was the Marine Corps. The Marines were studying helicopters as a better way than landing craft to get troops from ship to shore in amphibious operations."
- "The Marines quickly formed a special board of three generals to consider the possibilities (of how to deal with the threat nuclear weapons posed to amassing naval forces for an amphibious assault). Their answer was a new tactic called “vertical envelopment.”
- "The helicopter would allow the Marines to launch amphibious assaults from “ships widely separated and further off the shore than ten or fifteen miles,” Miller explained. “That’s why it was so important to the Marine Corps, because it enabled them to continue amphibious landings into a hostile shore. That’s their reason for existence.”
- "The Marines started buying Harriers in 1971, seeing the plane as a way to finally reach their goal of providing close air support to troops within thirty minutes of getting a call. The “jump jet” could take off from a road or even a clearing in the jungle, which meant it could be based just back of the front lines."
- "Fitch would tell a Senate committee that the tiltrotor was “a step comparable to the introduction of the jet engine for fighter aircraft.”
- "In our own minds, we knew very well how we were going to employ the aircraft once ashore, however, all we justified and explained was how the aircraft was to be employed in the ship-to-shore movement during an amphibious operation.” Blot said the Marines actually had a list of thirty missions the Osprey could do for them."
- "Getting helicopters overseas takes weeks. The Osprey was going to fly itself over the ocean. That was going to give the Corps a unique way to live up to one of its mottos: “First to Fight.”
- "Slowly but surely—not in a sudden shudder of inspiration, but in a gradual, osmotic way—the idea took hold within the Corps that the tiltrotor was going to transform the Marines. Without the Osprey, they would have to buy new helicopters to replace their old ones, and from time to time fend off those who wanted to reduce their cult of warriors to shipboard sheriffs and embassy guards, maybe even merge them with the Army."
- "The Osprey promised to ensure the Marine Corps’ future in a way that planting the flag on Mount Suribachi during the World War II battle of Iwo Jima hadn’t."
- In 1989, "The Osprey program got a new manager: Colonel Jim Schaefer, who in 1980, as a major, had piloted the helicopter that caused the disaster at Desert One in Iran. Schaefer had been advocating the tiltrotor ever since. (Interesting that the Marine pilot who was at the center of the Desesrt One aircraft incident was chosen to be the lead for the Osprey program for the USMC).
- (Throughout the book, the Osprey is depicted by key individuals as an aircraft that - if available - could have prevented the Desert One fiasco).

POLITICALLY, MARINES ARE SNEAKY BASTARDS
- "The joint program was the horse the Marines were going ride into the budget battles as they fought for their CH-46 replacement. In the beginning, it was a Trojan horse."
- "The key, though, always had been the Marines’ determination to have the Osprey, plus the Corps’ high standing in the eyes of the public and Congress. The"

BELL-BOEING PARTNERSHIP FORMED
- "The Bell-Boeing partnership was announced in June 1982."
- (Bell is a small company good at developing small helicopters like the Huey and had pioneered modern tilt-rotor technology.
- (Boeing is good at developing larger aircraft and big-budget efforts. The two companies decided to put their efforts together for the project).
- "50–50 partnership has a fundamental weakness: no one is in charge. When tough issues arose, as they often did, there was no easy way to settle them."

WELL-DESIGNED?
- (The idea was to use a lot of composite materials to cut down on weight but it was hard to make parts of consistent quality. They even took the laborious step of using CAT scans to find defects in parts): "He wheeled the gurney into the CAT scan room, laid the grip on a table as instructed, and watched a bemused technician prop pillows under the faux elephant’s foot to position it correctly, same as any other patient."
- "They’d had to make the rear fuselage higher than originally planned to allow room for the cargo ramp, which meant the Texas T was too tall to fit below the deck of a ship. The JVX would have a shorter H-tail."
- (There was a constant battle, as always, to cut weight) "In those days, the rule of thumb in aircraft design was that structure cost about $ 1,000 a pound." (Composites, ironically, added weight).
- (Due to the requirement to put the plane on a ship, it had smaller "proprotors" - as they are called, since they act like propellers and rotors - which affects the aircraft's lift)

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
- “We’re going to call it the ‘Osprey,’ ” Lehman (Navy secretary) confided.
- "Osprey” suited Lehman’s temperament. The osprey, Pandion haliaetus, is an aquatic bird of prey, a medium-sized, brown and white raptor found all over the world. Nature’s osprey feeds almost exclusively on fish, which it hovers over before diving to snare them with its powerful talons. The bird then takes off vertically to haul its catch to shore and eat it. The JVX wasn’t going to devour America’s enemies itself, but it was being built to carry Marines who would pounce on them."
- "A Department of Defense directive determined the new tiltrotor’s “Mission Design Series” letter and number: “V” for Vertical Take Off and Landing, “22” because that was its place on the historical list of “V” aircraft. In January 1985, the JVX officially became the V-22 Osprey."

TESTING
- "Military aircraft go through two types of tests, “developmental” and “operational.”
- Jul 1992: fatal crash in Potomac. "Jim Schaefer never forgot seeing coins found in the pockets of some of Aircraft 4’ s crew. They were bent."
- This is probably the most depressing thing I have read in a long time: "Little Anthony often asked his mother whether it was Friday. “Daddy said we’re picking him up on Friday,” the little boy would remind her."
- There were significant design changes to the aircraft's design as a result of a study (following the fatal crash in the Potomac).
- April 2000: second fatal crash - Marana, AZ. After the second fatal crash, more critics were calling for an end to the aircraft. This time, critics said the design of tilt-rotor aircraft are prone to crash (see video http://youtu.be/wddpsnvu0PM for details)
- After a third fatal crash - in North Carolina, the project looked all but dead. However, the decision was made to proceed with production.

THE OSPREY GOES TO WAR
- Finally, in 2007 a Osprey squadron deployed to Iraq ("After a quarter century of struggle and sorrow, at a cost of $ 22 billion and thirty lives, the Marines were sending the unorthodox flying machine they had staked their future on into a combat zone for the first time.")
- "Pleased with the Osprey’s performance there, the Marines sent a dozen MV-22Bs to Afghanistan in November 2009"


***** ***** ***** *****


BONUS:



1930s

HV2A Vertaplane- "In the Herrick design, a symmetrical airfoil-shaped rotor was mounted on a horizontal hinge about which it could rotate within certain limits. When flying as a biplane, the upper wing could be prevented from rotating by braces connected to its pylon. When rotating, the wing then assumed the character of an autorotative system."

*



April 22, 1931

Washington, DC- Aviation history was made today when James G. Ray, noted airman and Vice President of the Pitcairn Cierva Autogiro Company, landed one of the odd windmill craft on the South Grounds of the White House and, after receiving the congratulations of the President, took off again from the same cramped space. Photo shows the plane leaving the White House grounds. Note the acute angle at which it is climbing.

*



1936

The Focke Wulf FW-61 was the first fully controllable helicopter in the world. It had an airframe that was based on a training aircraft. It was powered by a 108 hp motor in the nose of the aircraft.

*



Two weeks after Nazi Germany’s September 1, 1939, invasion of Poland ignited World War II, Sikorsky flew the first successful helicopter in the United States at Stratford, his VS-300.

*



"Wheel of Misfortune" representing the various attempts at this type of aircraft.

*



1960s

Bell XV-3 Convertiplane

*



Bell XV-15

In 1973, NASA and the Army gave Bell a $26,415,000 contract to build two copies of the sleek little two-seat tiltrotor the company had designed, which except for its rotors looked a lot like an executive jet. NASA designated it the XV-15.

1980s video of XV-15:

http://youtu.be/63T0ad1HQkA

*

3D animation of second deadly crash; Marana, AZ ("vortex ring vortex" attributed to the crash due to a too-rapid rate of descent into its own propwash):

http://youtu.be/wddpsnvu0PM

*
2002

'60 Minutes' (intro only) story on the Osprey, which did not help the public relations for the program:

http://search.alexanderstreet.com/pre...

*
16 Sept, 2003

XV-15 donated to Smithsonian Museum

https://airandspace.si.edu/newsroom/p...



*
May 2, 2008

Initial Osprey Deployment The Deputy Commandant for Marine Corps Aviation LtGen George Trautman and three members of the Marine Corps' first operational Osprey squadron talked about the initial combat deployment of the MV-22 Osprey. They responded to reporters' questions.

Marines with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (VMM-263) deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September 2007 and returned the previous week. They were the first unit to take the MV-22 Osprey into combat.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?205159-...

*
May 2016 - pilots of Osprey that crashed in Marana found not responsible:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/marines-p...

*

[Tanvi Prakash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Whittle once again hitting it out of the park with a fast paced thriller style narration of an iconic aircraft development programme. Could relate hard to some events and characters.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, at over 390 pages, this is not light reading.

Different people will have different takes.

Is this the Marine Corps and a dedicated set of companies, lobbyists and politicians fighting for, and ultimately winning, a battle to bring next-gen aerospace tech into being?

Or is this a hideous case of pork-barrel spending, long-term, writ large?

A reader could take either from this book. Because, quite frankly, it's at the intersection of both.

I remember reading about Bell's XV-15 back when I was a kid (I was 9 when it first flew). I remember how it going was "going to revolutionize small airports" because it didn't need a runway. It could takeoff and land like a helicopter but it could "transition" to flying like an airplane. The history actually goes back much further than that; people were trying to create various types of "convertiplanes" back before WW II. And, indeed, Bell had an earlier aircraft (XV-3; look it up on Wikipedia) which could do this. But none of them did it well. What was needed was a combination of lightweight materials tech and high-power-density engine tech to mature, in parallel, until you could make something small enough with powerful-enough engines to do it.

Seems kinda obvious in retrospect. That's a common characteristic about "retrospect" which no one sees "looking forward."

Pretty sure there's only one XV-15 left in the world, sitting in the Udvar-Hazy annex of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (shaded under the wing of a Concorde, IIRC). Been there, done that, got the t-shirt (no, seriously, I have a t-shirt from that place), have pictures of the plane. In that place, I was like a kid in a candy store. So much interesting stuff to see. So much interesting history. But I digress.

I learned a lot about how the modern military procurement process works. So I understand what it means when they say the F-35 is in LRIP status. If you compare it to software:

* alpha testing = prototypes (there were ... 6 of these; many of them demolished)

* LRIP = beta testing (military flying them, flushing out bugs the mfrs didn't find, still lots of manual labor involved in building so still very expensive)

* full production = shipped (still fixing bugs but that's largely behind them; mass production in progress so price starts coming down)

Yes, there were some nasty accidents with these birds. You will get names, some pictures, lots of bio info on the major people involved in said accidents. I'd never heard of vortex ring state until I read this book (that's what took out one of the LRIP models, killing 2 pilots, 2 crew chiefs and 15 Marine infantrymen). It's kinda like wing vortex issues on a fixed wing plane, but applied to helicopter rotors. And about as unexpected and unwelcome. Some people considered the fact that the V-22 has two rotors to be a lethal, un-fix-able flaw; if one of them goes into ring vortex state, you lose lift on one side and the plane flips (which is exactly what happened). How do you fix that? You can't, they argued, therefore it has a fatal flaw. Well, you can't get entirely rid of it but all helicopter pilots are trained in vortex ring state (also known as settling with power), how to avoid it, how to detect it, how to get out of it. Once testing made that a known quantity, the fly-by-wire flight controls and the well-trained pilots have been able to avoid it.

There were so many corners cut, so many things "skipped" along the way. It did NOT go into full production until they had, at long last, exhaustively tested the aircraft and its flight envelope. In the end, it did pass those tests. But a lot of money was spent and a lot of lives lost while trying to "shortcut" their way through. There have been considerably fewer incidents since the exhaustive testing was actually done and all found issues fixed.

In software development, there's an (unfortunate) adage: we never have time to do it right, so we have to find time to do it over. Anytime you're developing something, there will be pressure to "just get it done." As a result, all too often, the "1.0 version" will have some serious issues and you may have to wait for the 2.x version (not just the 1.1) before it gets good (Windows didn't get decent until 3.0). Sad to say, that's not the case JUST in software development. And yes, it was the V-22B (second major version) which finally passed the tests and went into production.

I'm a fan of the plane. So I wanted to see it "win." And, ultimately, it does.

Can't say as it will revolutionize civil aviation; the high-power-density turboprops are pretty expensive. Presumably, it would be possible to do something like an XV-3 (engine in the fuselage, shafts through the wings driving the props) but that would be mechanically complex (it was in the XV-3) and, consequently, fragile. And it making anything bigger than a 2-seater would require a pretty potent engine. The smaller your rotor(s), the more horsepower you need, per pound, to takeoff vertically and hover. Piston-powered helicopters typically have a 2-bladed rotor (keeping it as simple as possible) with a wide span, so as to minimize power : weight needed. A General Aviation tiltrotor would likely end up with a props / rotors smaller than a helicopter and the wing would have to have enough wingspan that the props / rotors wouldn't hit the fuselage in the middle.

That was a problem with the Osprey, compounded by the fact that it had to be able to maneuver on the deck of a Marine assault craft without hitting the "island" with a spinning rotor and without sending the landing gear, on the other side, over the side of the deck. That imposed a very definite maximum rotor- and wing-span. Which, in turn, meant it needed more powerful engines. Which are heavier. Which means you need stronger (heavier) wings. Which means you need more powerful engines ....

The author does not play fast 'n loose here. The book is the culmination of a lot of personally-witnessed events (he was a correspondent who got to be embedded with a V-22 squadron, along with various, prior experiences with the bird) and a lot of interviews with the people involved.

[gargamelscat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The wide access given by so many of the players I think has resulted in the author pulling his punches. Any negative comments seem so couched as to be as inoffensive as possible.

Could have been more technical and I'd like to have seen some comparisons with similar overruning projects (JSF anyone?).

What I don't understand is why I've never noticed a mention of the V22 Osprey before seeing this book.

[Frank Stein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Military procurement is hardly the most scintillating topic, but the author of this book makes a valiant effort to make it so. The V-22 Osprey, admittedly, had a longer and more circuitous route than most projects.

The idea of a "tiltrotor," with propellers that could switch from horizontal like a plane to vertical like a helicopter, had been around even before Igor Sikorsky made a regular helicopter work in 1939 (the congressional Dorsey-Logan Act, from the year before, had originally been intended to support what was then known as the "autogiro," but had been diverted into helicopter funding when that looked more promising). But it wasn't until Bell Helicopter, attempting to expand their military range beyond their success Huey program, began toying with the idea that it became real. Bell then won a contract with NASA in 1973 to try out a tiltroter program and won a sterling success at the 1981 Paris Air Show where their XV-15 curtsied of sorts to the attendees. Within two years it had won a big congressional contract to build dozens of them for a joint service project between different military branches, although, as everyone realized, it was the Marines that really wanted it, because they were convinced it could continue and extend their tradition of amphibious landings as the Huey and Sea Knight helicopters grew out-of-date.

It took 20 years, $20 billion, and thirty lives, mainly lost in two big crashes in Arizona and along the Potomac, before the military officially accepted the Osprey in 2003, and it didn't see combat until Iraq 2007. Despite many naysayers, the Osprey performed well in combat, with only one crash later in Afghanistan, one caused by indeterminate issues. The Osprey was vastly more expensive and took longer and was more experimental and originally dangerous than the military expected, but it went into operation and performed fairly well. Almost everyone who flew it loved its maneuverability and agility, although the Marines always had trouble keeping it in working order and most of the "birds" operational.

The author spends a long time on every aspect of "development" and "operational" test flight programs, on the "flight envelope" and the MOTT ("Multiservice Operational Test Team") that did the flying, including extended biographies of almost everyone who died on the test flights and many of those who just flew them. But one does get the sense of how difficult it is to test out new equipment. I enjoyed a little more all the engineering problems that had to be solved, from keeping flight range while keeping weight under the military specs and also adding enough armor to protect the "nacelles" (the rotating propeller cases) and other parts, and tons of discussion "vortex ring state" (when helicopters lose control because of air circulation during rapid descents at slow forward speed). The details can all be a bit much, but this is one of the best books out there on the course from radical idea to military workhorse, told through all its convoluted path.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The magical Osprey. A mythical aircraft that took decades to be deployed. I had some knowledge of its difficult history, being an aircraft nut. Even saw the XV-15 on static display during tour of NASA Ames one year. It does look like something from the future. Just look at the type of aircraft a lot of anime uses to zip around Tokyo. Tiltrotor.

What I learned from the book was how difficult it can be to get a new aircraft through Congress. Dang, a lot of effort to do anything. Especially for something radical. Cutting edge means higher cost, but it puts us at the forefront of the technology.

Being so new, accidents are bound to happen. Taking an armchair analyst view of the material, my opinion is politics were the root cause each of the crashes. Military or Congress, take your pick. From pressure to fly with known problems, to cutting back on test flights and envelope expansion, to poor design due to a push to complete the ops eval at the least cost, its all there. I don't see pilot error in any of the crashes. A lack of testing for the flight control software is a big portion of it. Due to a lack of funds and time crunch, not enough testing was done to see what happens in edge cases. There was a lot of "The aircraft should never achieve this scenario", which in my 20 years of testing complex software means the machine will get you to that state. Just wait. It is amazing to me that there was a lot of corners cut in testing to get the machine into production.

The best parts of the book for me were the descriptions of the technical problems with the aircraft design & the detailed breakdown of the crashes. It gave me a better understanding of why the engineers made their decisions, at least to a certain point. The crash details include data from the flight recorders, including what the pilots said. It is chilling, for in each case the pilots were trying to control an aircraft that had suddenly changed from angel to demon.

For me, part of the book was dull, but necessary. All of the politics. The other parts, about actually flying and deploying this new aircraft technology was very cool (learned about vortex ring state). It may not keep detractors from wishing the aircraft away from the Marines, but it may educate those interested in learning the real story. I believe the author has taken a realistic view of the history and presented it with all the necessary backing information.

[John Vandike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little book an an unusual aircraft.

Ostensibly about the history and development of the tiltrotor in its most well-known form (i.e. the Marine's V-22) the author actually does a great job exposing the vagaries of the US Government's, in general, and the Dept. of Defense specifically, procurement processes. Being from the aerospace industry myself I found myself enjoying the behind the scenes machinations to keep the Osprey alive through multiple administrations (Reagan, HW Bush, and Clinton) almost more than the the story of the tiltrotor technology.

Though they are not 'characters' in the fiction sense, the author does a nice job developing the main players on the business, engineering, and governmental stage (including regular appearances by Dick Cheney in his various guises). One of the weaker spots would be with respect to the actual fielding of the aircraft. The author pulls no punches with respect to the various mishaps and crashes of the aircraft and attempts to paint a vivid picture of those affected, whether killed, injured, or second-hand victims; but, the end of the book is effectively when the aircraft has made its way into active use by the US military. As a result there is little detail on the combat effectiveness of the aircraft or its role in any particular combat actions.

So, in short: fascinating story about new technology and its trials and tribulations to be fielded by the US armed forces. The author has a great grasp on the budget and development process and the interplay between the government administration and the legislative branch. Would have liked to have seen a little bit more about the aircraft as used post-Sept 11, but overall a good book whether the reader is interested in aerospace development, engineering, or government procurement (alright, I'll admit the last is probably a bit of a stretch for anyone).

[solo · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite well written and non-technical, first and foremost, this book is a glimpse at the inner workings of the military-industrial complex, taking a troubled 30+ years long project as a use case. as such, it poses an excellent and tough question: how does one equip the country's armed forces for victory in the face of innumerable conflicting economic and political interests, human greed, self-interest, hubris and myopia?

as to Osprey itself, unfortunately the "history" remains largely "untold". Whittle made sure to tread very lightly on this one, so as not to step on any toes, rather than do proper investigative journalism. by 2010, when the book went to press, there were already large discrepancies between the reliability and accident rates USMC touted to the press and reality (just checking the lists of stricken vs assigned BuNos tells a different story). the amount of what since became known as "creative accounting" and "alternative facts" surrounding Osprey is staggering! and things didn't get any better since the book was completed, with an ongoing string of public disasters which simply couldn't be swept under the rug...

instead of padding the (hefty!) page count with marginally relevant stories, Whittle might have done well to take a long hard look at these shenanigans. but, i guess like the congressmen, the generals, the manufacturers' management, the engineers and the assembly line workers, he too needs to make a living. only the grunts have to make do...

so far, the dream remains a dream. will V-280 Valor change this? only time will tell, though hopefully at a much lower cost, especially in human lives.

[Nolan Fergusson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was tasked to read this book for my job and at first was dreading the thought of it as I solely lean towards fiction/fantasy. This book did open my eyes and aperture in many ways and I am grateful for it. I think the biggest applause to the book is the sheer amount of detail that Richard Whittle put into it. It is evident that this story was not recounted "off the cuff" and had to be methodically and laboriously researched to be properly re-told. As someone who works closely to aircraft maintenance, this story was slightly unnerving and did a great job of trying to put you in the shoes of the pilots/crew who were responsible for flying this machine with all of the concerns and the media swirl floating at the same time. My only critique is the seeming imbalance of text dedicated to the aircraft design flaws and maintenance issues versus those of political interruption. I'm sure that the amount of political obstacles outweighed the mechanical/design issues, but at times it seemed repetitive and uninteresting to the reader (hearing that someone else in government had reservations etc. and that the project was once again at a stopping point).

[Jon Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased my copy of this book used in hardback at the Dickson Street Bookshop in Fayetteville, AR in June 2022. It has taken me a while to get around to reading it, but the experience was a rewarding one. This book covers the long and tortured development and deployment history of a revolutionary piece of military hardware. It is based on much research and many interviews, and by and large is seems to be an even-handed telling of events. There is a lot of technical detail about how military aircraft are engineered, marketed, tested, and sold via a labyrinthine, years-or-decades-long process. The writing style is brisk and engaging, which accounts for how I was able to churn through almost 400 pages of text in just a few days. The book ends in 2008, when the Osprey aircraft was being deployed in the Iraq war and the Marines were in the process of purchasing their fleet of Ospreys. Now in 2024 there are over 400 of them in the inventory, and it looks like they will be flying for at least a couple more decades. Five out of five stars.

[Jeremiah Salyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating odyssey through the ups and downs of designing and building a new aircraft from scratch. Unfortunately in the social medial/youtube era, I think people have gotten the wrong idea about the aircraft. Every plane in history has test accidents and test pilots killed unfortunately. It's part of the game and part of the risk. I found the explanation of vortex ring state the most interesting although my lousy understanding made it harder to understand. Hopefully you'll that part more than I did. As a Aviation Electronics Technician (former, 8 years in the Navy) some parts of this book made me smile, especially the pre-deployment briefing with squadron personnel on the first V22 squad to deploy to Iraq. As the author points, she hasn't been superbly tested just one trip to Iraq without much combat. The publication date is 2011 and we are once again expanding our role in Iraq while continuing to stay in Afghanistan. So no doubt she'll come into play eventually.

[Matty · Rating 4 out of 5]

More political then I like but soooo interesting

Like many ive been captivated by the osprey. I know about the reputation this machine had but I also marvelled at the technology. I always wondered what the story was and this book tells it. I was interested in the technology and development, but I failed to realize the political influence, impact and weight around this program. This book goes into detail on all of it. More then I liked actually and I had to force myself to read parts of it. But it does all come together if you read trough it. I'm amazed at the perseverance of some people in this story. And i'm saddened by the lives it cost. It's also a story about passion. There is something about this machine that people get passionate about. And if you are one of them then this book is for you

[Jordan Neben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dream Machine follows the decades long and complex development and early life of the Osprey, one of the first attempts to develop and mass produce a large tiltrotor aircraft. Richard Whittle gives a richly detailed and endlessly entertaining account of the many tragedies and triumphs of the Osprey. The reader will hear from the corporate marketing directors who believed that tiltrotors would be the future of both military and civil aviation, as well as people who believed the Osprey was a disaster waiting to happen and were committed to seeing the Osprey thrown to the scrap heap. Eventually, the world ended up with what is undoubtedly an incredible engineering achievement, but an achievement that lead to dozens of avoidable deaths.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting account of the development of the V-22 Osprey and tilt-rotor technology in general. Whittle consulted a large number of sources and provides a comprehensive history of the aircraft, including the pilots and crewmembers who lost their lives during its development and testing. I especially appreciated his description of the Marine Corps' efforts to adopt the aircraft as a means of maintaining its separate identity from the US Army, and the legislative efforts required to keep the program alive.

[Fraser Kinnear · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I didn't work in aerospace, I don't think I'd enjoy this book as much as I did. Wonderfully detailed perspective on the military development and procurement process, told through the story of one piece of technology that was decades in the making, and cost twenty three lives.

Felt similar to Skunk Works or Boyd, except much deeper as it focused on one product instead of across many. Whittle did a great job of (at least appearing to) tell every side of the story.

[David Lansing · Rating 5 out of 5]

It reminds me of the research I did in college, I worked on flying car prototypes. Such a hard problem to solve, so many failed attempts. The VTOL wheel of death.

I can’t help but see myself a bit in the descriptions of Dick Spivey, the aerospace engineer turned marketer red haired guy who went to Georgia tech and had a pleasant disposition hahaha. Crazy how much time and money goes into this and also how little the government really knew about what was going on. The MIC is such a beast

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The deepest history you can find of the political and engineering machinations that brought the V-22 to operational capacity. This plane is a marvel, an oddity, and so complex in every sense that the density and scope of this book have found a worthy subject. Engineers and aviation enthusiasts will enjoy every page.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author gives a thorough and exciting history of the V-22 Osprey. He kept me enthralled and engaged from start to finish. I left this read with an understanding of the V-22’s sad and tough past, and how instrumental it is for the Military. Also how those who created it were true pioneers in the aviation world.

Great read.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A depressing look at the military industrial complex at it most ineffectual. Yet also highlights the men whose dreams, scientific inquiry, and duty to service shine through amid the muck. A tad dense, slightly bias feeling, but overall well structured and holds interest - if you are already interested in aviation.

[Bastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rambling story about the politics surrounding an interesting aircraft. I would have preferred much more detail about the aircraft and its operation, while leaving out the other 85% of the book.

Still, the core story *is* interesting, if sloppily told.