Don't forget, Riff, the Sikorsky philosophy of designing the product to suit civilian market requirements while meeting DOD specifications. The ability to hop point-to-point at reasonable cruise speed opens up all sorts of new markets. This is definately the case with advancing blade technology since the machine does not compromise at all on the ability to hover. There is a weight penalty, but with so many innovative new hingeless rotor designs out there I would challenge whether this is really an issue. Once the market realises it does not need expensive runway land to meet medium range transport requirements it will demand a cost effective machine to fill the gap...
Last edited by Graviman; 8th Aug 2011 at 18:08.