Any reason why the ducted pusher-prop variant XH-59B (which was a natural follow-up to the 59A) was abandoned ?
We have lost about 35 years as a result of that decision !
- And now we have even the Russians hopping onto the 'ABC boat' with their Ka-92 project -I believe that the Kamov Design Bureau has sufficient expertise in production of coaxials - they had some serious fleet reliability problems in their coaxial swashplates and linkage controls which they have largely overcome. They have progressively increased the flapping hinge offset in the Ka-50 (although as of yet nowhere near the 'true ABC' requirements). Its quite possible that they will be able to evolve their coaxial designs into the Russki ABC. In fact they have declared their intent to productionalise the ABC Ka-92 (or its derivative) by 2020.