Aerogeekery: a question!

[desperance]

When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the airshow held every year on a local military airfield. I seem never to have grown out of the excitement of planes and all that they imply. [Also, yes: Biggles. Of course Biggles, how not?]

So here where we live, Moffett Field is just over there. Literally a short walk away. We're right under the approach; we get a lot of aircraft coming in over the garden, big transports and incredibly loud fighters - always in pairs, the fighters - low enough that they have their wheels down already.

But, alas, I was downtown yesterday when I saw something I have never seen before, so I didn't get the view that my own house would have afforded.

A question, then: what aircraft has wings like a plane, but helicopter rotors rising above each wing? There were two of them, and they looked like something out of science fiction.

[EtA: they were Ospreys! A huge thank-you to lifeofglamour, who was first to call it home...]