Originally Posted by
DavidSmithHeli
Not CGI. These are photographs of our marketing and customer evaluation prototype. 3rd prototype R88 we built.
Well I can see why CGameProgrammerr thought they were CGI as that was my first reaction as well, until I searched for the blemishes that indicate they were real photos.
But a question: Why such a bluff back end to the main fuselage? Wouldn't that lead to a fair bit of drag? Sure, I know R22, R44, R66 all have the same feature but I would say they also cop a bit of drag as a result? Why not take a leaf out of Bell 206 / 206L / 407 book?