Bug, have you discussed a project with Robinson (for example)? You might be able to persuade them to lend you a development machine, and give you access to their engineering department. If you convince the engineers (and you seem serious enough to me) then the engineers will convince the MD to take trials further.
Perhaps a better route would be to talk to some of the engineering teams developing rotorwing UAVs and suggest that you can provide some expertise for the rotor system development. Working on your own is always going to leave you idea as an outsiders.
Just my £0.02.
