Heliport (and thus, by implication, to BigMike too) - sorry, I was not aware of that ruling about companies people work for and will bear it in mind in the future
Bell told me that the 427 will carry on once the 429 is out and about, and the 427 remains a VFR-only machine. The 429, on the other hand, should be an "IFR=I Follow Railways" machine from the start.
The also told me that the 429 internals are close to a 145 and rather more than a 135, but as I didn't have a tape measure with me at Helitech, I didn't check to know whether that was sales talk or not.
Either way, the more competition out there, the better - it keeps them all on their toes and not their laurels.