Actually the army reversed course on JHL again last time I heard.
AATD's focus is squarely on the High-Efficiency Tilt-Rotor (HETR), but the $15+ billion development cost (and $40+ billion acquisition price tag) probably represents a bigger hurdle than the technical and operational challenges. A Variable Diameter Tilt Rotor (VDTR) study was one of the 13 risk reduction studies performed using FY-08/09 drip feed funding, hence SAC's revisiting of the TRAC VDR study.
Originally Posted by Rigid Rotor
Any reason why the ducted pusher-prop variant XH-59B was abandoned?
From Ray Robb's article in AHS
Vertiflite, Summer 2006:
"A proposal for the development and flight test of the XH-59B was submitted to the Army, but Sikorsky’s refusal to share costs (in part due to the resource strains on the company that resulted from the simultaneous development of the UH-60 Black Hawk, SH-60 Seahawk, CH-53E Super Stallion, and civil S-76) resulted in the Army not awarding a contract. As a result, the XH-59B was never built."
I/C