@henra
Although I generally don't disagree I'm still wondering if the effort for testing it on the prototype would have been really that high ?
Depends on time, schedule, and budget. Also depends on the minimum criterion established to make a "go/no go" decision on the program. No idea, and I am not sure Sikorsky will be telling.
If everything else is in place I would have thought this effort shouldn't have been too high and you could learn potentially important things early giving you time to work on it systematically without the ususal rush/stress/time limitations in the 'real' project.
I agree.
Maybe the budget was simply consumed by then and it was not considered worthwhile...
That's my guess.
Coming from an engineering background myself I feel with the engineers/designers who would have surely loved to test it.
Agree yet again. Time and resources are finite, could be they ran out of one of them.
@Dave J:
Yes, looks like an interesting competition is shaping up.
Consider the following:
On the X3, where would the weapons stations be located?
Those props look to be an obstruction to conventional weapons mounting points, and weapons release. Can probably be worked out, but it will take some thinking.