Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
Boeing's FARA wasn't simple or conventional. It was a thrust compounded single main rotor helicopter which is more complex than Bell's lift compounded design. Both are simpler than Sikorsky's Raider-X. My view is that the Army is giving Sikorsky as many chances as possible to show some success with an X-2 platform and picked a no-kidding low risk design as the alternate. Not only was Boeing's configuration not the lowest risk, but there is no track record of getting a demonstrator/prototype put together on time. Bell also had that going for them.
Boeing and Sikorsky indeed proposed more complex compound helicopters while Bell proposed an advanced, but conventional, helicopter, the only non-compound submitted by the original five respondents. What's interesting is that Boeing's concept used the same type of compound propulsion configuration used by Lockheed in the AAFSS competition which resulted in the AH-56 while Karem's design used the concept proposed by Sikorsky in their bid for the same program.