I think it’s an important point that while I’m a skeptic I’m not trying to fall the trap of “that’s so dumb it will never work!”.
As others have said, the technology in vertical lift keeps getting better and better. My (hopefully!) healthy skepticism of this program is informed by years of working on the main frontline aircraft the US Army uses, each with strength and weaknesses, and seeing what I consider abject failure by the Army (UH-72, and soon, the CCAD welfare project that is the UH-60V).
Having said that, New stuff is hard, and Bell has demonstrated something new and it will be, IF it can do everything it claims, a great advancement for Army Aviation and the Air Assault doctrine. That’s a fact. And as cynical as I am, and as hard as it is to say given the track record of the various services over the years, I think that not everyone involved in the flight evaluation of these competitors is a corrupt sellout. A lot of these issues that we are discussing here have been heavily evaluated by fellow aviators with pretty impressive professional experience.
After 3-4 schedule delays for initial operation capability and one or two billon $ of cost overruns we will find out if I’m right or wrong 🤣
FltMech