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The person on the right is not a mechanic, but radio operator Pieter Pronk

The McDonnell XV-1 was an experimental compound gyroplane developed for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army to explore technologies to develop an aircraft that could take off and land like a helicopter but fly at faster airspeeds, similar to a conventional airplane. The XV-1 would reach a speed of 200 mph (322 km/h), faster than any previous rotorcraft, but the program was terminated due to the tip-jet noise and complexity of the technology which gave only a modest gain in performance.

The aircraft serving as the backdrop to this photo is the Atlantic-Fokker C-2A named "?" ("Question Mark"), USAAC Serial Number 28-120, which, due to aerial refueling, was able to set an endurance flight record of over 150 hours from January 1 - January 7, 1929. The aircraft's commander (Carl "Tooey" Spatz) and crew of officers (Ira Eaker, Pete Quesada, and Harry Halverson) would go on to be important leaders of the US Army Air Force during the Second World War, and afterwards in the US Air Force. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_Mark_(aircraft)