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

James R. Chiles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2007

History has known few more inventive minds than those responsible for the helicopter, mankind’s most versatile flying machine. From the aerodynamic artistry of Leonardo da Vinci, through the futuristic tales of Jules Verne, to the prototypes built by the horde of rotationally obsessed enthusiasts who followed, here is the definitive story of a modern icon.

Proposing that humans could hover in the air by hanging a fuselage beneath large spinning blades requires a substantial leap of the imagination—not to mention a pile of precision gadgetry. This unique book bears witness to the challenge of turning the earliest “rotating wing” aircraft into the helicopters that dominate news footage today.

The helicopter turned out to be much more agile and capable than the early inventors expected but also took longer to perfect than the airplane. Among the earliest of the helicopter hopefuls were nineteenth-century American greeting card printer Mortimer Nelson, French entrepreneurs Launoy and Bienvenu of prerevolutionary Paris, and English country squire George Cayley, builder of mankind’s first manned glider. The first controllable helicopter flew in the 1920s. While it has yet to take its place alongside the family car, as pioneer designer Igor Sikorsky hoped, the helicopter plays a significant role in all our lives.

In addition to transforming the ways of war, offering godlike views of inaccessible spots, and providing some of our most-watched TV moments—including the cloud of newscopters that trailed O. J. Simpson’s Bronco—the helicopter has revolutionized rescues worldwide by proving its ability to extract people from almost anywhere. In 2005 an astounding 35,500 people were saved from the perils of Hurricane Katrina—a feat impossible with any other machine.

James Chiles offers profiles of the many helicoptrians throughout history 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 uplifting 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this sprightly history is apt both because of the helicopter's seemingly miraculous ability to float above the earthly realm and pluck mortals from the jaws of disaster, and for the nearly superhuman feats of engineering accomplished in its development. Chiles (Inviting Disaster) gives an anecdote-studded history of the inspired and eccentric breed of garage mechanics who tamed the helicopter's tendency to tip over in winds, twirl uncontrollably and shake itself to pieces to give us the sturdy, poised aircraft we know today. Gears and aerodynamics don't take over the book. Chiles explores the helicopter's role in history and culture, from its visionary beginnings, when housewives were expected to ferry kids to school in the family chopper, to its heroic age during the Vietnam war, to its present workaday role lifting and hauling, monitoring traffic and car chases, saving victims of flood waters and skyscraper infernos and serving as Hollywood's conveyance of choice for bad guys. Chiles darts about this landscape, sometimes cruising through a lucid narrative of technological development, sometimes hovering awhile to sketch a character study of some helicoptrian enthusiast or take in a daring aerial rescue. The result is an engaging blend of pop science and pop culture. (Oct. 30)
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Review

"An engaging blend of pop science and pop culture.... Chiles explores the helicopter's role in history and culture, from its visionary beginnings ... to its heroic age during the Vietnam war, to its present workaday role lifting and hauling, monitoring traffic and car chases, saving victims of flood waters and skyscraper infernos.... [A] sprightly history."—Publishers Weekly

"Lively.... Sketches of machine designs enrich the text.... Should be a required purchase for academic libraries serving engineering or aviation programs and for aeronautical corporation or aviation flight department collections."—Library Journal

“Entertaining … part history, part technical exploration, part flying lesson…. Delivers an avalanche of information with enough lucidity and enthusiasm to captivate not only aviation buffs, but general readers as well.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Enthusiastic and knowledgeable, Chiles should take off with aviators.”—Booklist

"The God Machine is engaging and the numerous illustrations by Laura Maestro are informative and, in some cases, indispensable."—New York Post

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553804472
• ISBN-13: 978-0553804478
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,044,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #16 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Aviation > Helicopters

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meets a real need., January 9, 2008

By 

James W. Williams (AL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter (Hardcover)

James R. Chiles' The God Machine takes an important place among a very small literature on a vital piece of modern technology - the helicopter.

Writings about or involving helicopters are plentiful. A Google search using helicopter and history turns up more than 10 million hits. Doing the same for just books in Amazon.com turns up over 12,000 and almost a thousand at Barnes & Noble. However, when you try to find just those that make any real effort to cover the breadth and depth of the subject -- the ideas underlying, development, application, and impact of this technology - numbers drop to a handful. Among those, most are either dated - which only takes a few years, given the pace of change in the world -- or focus solely on military aspects. So, even if it did nothing more than just try to cover the waterfront, The God Machine would be a valuable book.

In fact, Chiles has gone well beyond that. He's presented key issues and a fair amount of technical information in terms that almost any lay reader can understand. An example is his discussion of the problem of controlling a helicopter in a hover - the invaluable characteristic that distinguishes it from almost all other aircraft. He explains how this problem frustrated early visionaries and inventors and how it was finally overcome - down to the specific hardware involved and how it works this magic.

In taking a broad view, Chiles also discusses the huge gaps between vision and reality that have been a persistent part of the story. One of these gaps involved the idea of a simple, cheap device that would displace the family car and reduce increasing congestion on highways. This vision butted against the reality of a technology that defied finding a practical combination of cost, capability, and reliability that could put the product in the hands of the masses. He shows how these same factors restricted ownership and use to the wealthy, companies, and public agencies meeting special needs. He shows how various inventors tried, always unsuccessfully, to overcome these obstacles.

Chiles also shows how the helicopter achieved a unique place in meeting special needs - especially for the military and in such activities as arctic exploration, servicing offshore oil platforms, civilian search-and-rescue, and real-time news gathering. He also shows how evolving social and political contexts have shaped attitudes toward helicopters - especially opposition to their noise, as well as concerns about government spying on private citizens.

Finally he shows, as in the case of helicopters rescuing mountain climbers in Alaska, how availability of this technology has sometimes led to a false sense of security and personal recklessness that the public winds up paying the bills for.

While this book lacks citation to sources for specific information, as one who has worked extensively on history involving helicopters, I know that Chiles has also made accessible to general readers information found only in some rare and expensive sources. Beyond that, he's drawn on interviews with and direct observation of helicopter pilots and users - to the extent of having learned to fly a helicopter himself. Anecdotes flowing from these sources give his writing an immediate, human touch that increases entertainment, as well as informational value.

No book will ever be the last word on rotorcraft, but The God Machine certainly meets a real need. If you want to or can buy only one book on helicopters, this is the one.

[Dr. James W. Williams is the former U.S. Army Aviation Branch Historian and author of A History of Army Aviation: From Its Beginnings to the War on Terror (2005)]

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The complete story of the Helicopter, December 28, 2007

By 

Brien J. Richards - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter (Hardcover)

Mr. Chiles has produced one of the finest books on a very intergal part of our society. I know how important the helicopter is as I flew many hours in them while in Vietnam as a 19 year old Airborne Infantryman working for a Long Range Patrol Team, 1966 & 1967. Mr. Chiles' research was very thorough as he provides background and insight into this amazing piece of aeronautical wizadry. I for one am very impressed and appreciative of Mr. Chiles approach to the subject as the helicopter has changed so many aspects of our lives. Good book, one to own and well worth the time to read. Thank you Mr. Chiles for all the hard work.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book to Uplift Your Knowledge, January 27, 2008

By 

JOHN D. de Yonge (Concrete, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks: The Story of the Helicopter (Hardcover)

From humankind's early aspirations to fly by flapping wings of wax and feathers to the roar and flap-flap-flap of today's sophisticated helicopters in war, civilian transport, construction, logging, mercy flights and search and rescue, Jim Chiles pens a sophisticated and entertaining history of "The God Machine." All of the technical matter necessary to understand choppers, how they developed and how they fly, comes clearly and easily to the non-mechanical readers as well to helicopter engineers, thanks to Chiles' skilled exposition and his deep research into the wingless mechanisms we often see in daily life, news reports, and adventure films. "The God Machine" promises to add value to any library, including those in homes where parents leave good books out to tempt offspring into reading and therefore expanding their mental life. In short, "The God Machine" is a fact book for all, a worthy read on a fascinating subject, a book that uplifts your knowledge and raises your awareness of one of humanity's engineering marvels.