quote:
"Salt Lake City, Utah - November 7, 2005 - Groen Brothers Aviation, Inc.
(GBA) (OTC: BB GNBA) announced today that the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected a GBA-led team to design a proof of concept high speed, long range, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft designed for use in Combat Search and Rescue roles. Phase one of this potentially multi-year $40 million four phase program, begins with a fifteen month $6.4 million award to develop the preliminary design and perform key technology demonstrations." Unquote.
There were a number of reasons why the Fairey Rotodyne project was cancelled - not all of them were to do with the aircraft. The project showed that the aircraft had tremendous lifting power. Perhaps the political climate had been different, or if the project had been designed and built on the other side of the Atlantic and said "Sikorsky" on the side, we would be flying very different machines today. As we have seen, in the last couple of years or so, even the mighty Sikorsky name has suffered severe political setbacks!
Glad to see that the U.S. government remains open-minded...
