Weyrich, Paul, 169–70
“Wheel of Misfortune” graphic, 34
Whisper Tip design, 41, 42
White, William J., 75, 87–88, 96–97, 99, 102
Wilford, E. Burke, 19–20, 25
Williams, Pete, 231
Wilson, Charles, 168, 177, 232
Wilson, Grady, 196–99, 200–202, 247, 313
Aircraft 4 crash and, 218, 221, 223, 224, 225, 229–30, 356
wind resistance (drag), 11, 31, 206
wind tunnel tests, 13, 36, 48, 49, 73, 74, 109, 129
wing stow mechanism, 118, 126–29, 132, 138, 206, 246, 258, 280
Wood, Tom, 353
World War I, 10, 54, 84
World War II, 14, 15, 22, 23–24, 30, 31–32, 54, 63, 69, 70, 71, 126, 139, 247
Wright, James M. “Lefty,” 265–74, 280–81, 284–85
Wright, Jim, 47–48, 94, 99, 101, 163–164, 175, 176, 181–82, 185
Wright, Orville and Wilbur, 9, 15, 22, 396
X-1 rocket plane, 23
Yarborough, Glenn, 141–42
Yeager, Chuck, 23, 354, 359
Young, Arthur Middleton, 20–21, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 122, 320
Yuma, Ariz., see MAWTS-1
Zarqawi, Abu Musab al-, 373–74
Gerard Herrick (left) with his Convertaplane. The Princeton-educated lawyer and engineer spent most of his life and fortune trying to perfect his personal dream machine. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.)
James G. Ray and Senator Hiram Bingham took off in a Pitcairn Autogiro from the parking lot on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol in July 1931. (PHOTO COURTESY OF PITCAIRN FOUNDATION.)
Arthur Young demonstrating the remote-control helicopter he obsessively spent nine years designing and building and rebuilding. After Young flew it in a hangar for Larry Bell and his engineers on September 3, 1941, the aviation entrepreneur agreed to spend $250,000 to build two full-size helicopters if Young would supervise the project. (PHOTO COURTESY BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON INC.)
Dick Spivey with a version of the “Whisper Tip” rotor blade he patented as a young Bell Helicopter engineer. (PHOTO COURTESY BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON INC.)
Dick Spivey caught his first glimpse of the XV-3 Convertiplane, Bell Helicopter’s first tiltrotor, the day he started work at the company in 1959. From then on, the tiltrotor was Spivey’s dream machine. (PHOTO COURTESY BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON INC.)
Kenneth G. Wernicke, Bell’s chief tiltrotor designer, was appalled when he saw what the military wanted the future V-22 Osprey to be able to do. Wernicke nearly resigned rather than try to design it. (PHOTO COURTESY BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON INC.)
On May 23, 1988, Bell and Boeing staged a rollout of the first V-22 Osprey with the help of Hollywood producers. Painted camouflage, the Osprey looked ready for combat. It was far from it. (PHOTO COURTESY BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON INC.)
Aircraft 4 was sent to the McKinley Climatic Laboratory in Florida for some of the most grueling tests a prototype can undergo. Tethered like a torture victim to a “run stand,” the Osprey prototype was subjected to temperatures ranging from a scorching 125 degrees Fahrenheit to a bone-chilling minus 65. The beating it took delayed its fateful flight to Quantico, Virginia. (PHOTO COURTESY OF KATHI MAYAN.)
The MOTT pilots, 1999. Front row, left to right: Major Ron “Curly” Culp, Major Mike “Pygmy” Westman, Lieutenant Colonel Keith “Mickey” Sweaney, Major Jim “Trigger” Schafer, Major Brooks “Chucky” Gruber, Air Force Major Jon D. “J.D.” Edwards. Back row, left to right: Major Paul “Rocket” Rock, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jim “Dirtbag” Shaffer, Major Michael “Murf” Murphy, Major John T. “J.T.” Torres, Major John “Boot” Brow. (PHOTO BY RONALD S. CULP.)
Brooks and Connie Gruber on their wedding day. After his Osprey crashed at Marana, Connie couldn’t look at the moon without wondering if it was the last sight Brooks had seen before he died. (PHOTO COURTESY OF DR. CONNIE GRUBER.)
Cpl. Kelly Keith, a twenty-two-year-old crew chief from South Carolina, liked to sing “Let Her Cry” by Hootie and the Blowfish. Keith was killed in the crash at Marana. (PHOTO BY ERIC SAULSGIVER.)
Major Michael “Murf” Murphy (left), who died in the New River crash, with Major Jim Schafer. MOTT pilots called the gregarious Murphy “The Mayor” because he could enter a room full of strangers and leave with two new friends. (PHOTO BY RONALD S. CULP.)
Sergeant Jason Buyck (left) and Staff Sergeant Avely Runnels, the crew chiefs who died in the New River crash. (PHOTO BY MAUREEN MULLONEY.)
The Osprey returned to flight at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland on May 29, 2002, after being grounded for seventeen months. (PHOTO BY JAMES DARCY.)
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Rock and members of VMM-263 posed with an Osprey at Yuma, Arizona, in May 2007, as they trained to go to Iraq. (PHOTO BY FAYE K. ROSS.)
Everyone in VMM-263 loved the photo of a sign showing their reply to Mark Thompson’s article in Time magazine predicting disaster for the Osprey in Iraq.
The Dream Machine Page 60
