waspy,
when it was the "US-101" and was made by LM and Bell, the embarassment of having a British TP and British first flight was palpable. Forgive me, but back then, we used all swords to stab the beast!
And yes, Oct 09 was finally contracted. I have my alarm clock set for that date, and would bet that we could sleep comfortably on the White House helipad on Halloween, 2009 with no fear of being woken by the sound of a 5-bladed system!