Bell seriously believed that they would 'get away with it'... they thought JAR 27 would would be remodelled around their slightly 'wrong' plans.
They did the same thing with the 427... the certification requirements stated among many other things that fuel would be in crashworthy tanks beneath the cabin so they built them into the bulkhead between the passenger cabin and the pilots....... the headrests were 4 US gallons or so.... and as we know the 427 bombed! They actually had EC and AW worried especially as they had a special deal with PWC on the new engines.... but overweight and unable to deliver the SPIFR [that they later delied was ever contemplated] etc it faded from view except for the gifts to African police ....
In many ways McDonnell Douglas had the same cavalier attitude to the European certification authorities in the mid 1990s.... ['We are Americans, what we do must be right or made to conform to our rules'] and they had a close squeak with the 900 that became the 902 to conform.
And now it looks like the FAA has sided with a [so far silent?] EASA.
They are the certification authorities, and they have finally grown a spine, sat up and said 'These are the rules, follow them or pay the consequences.....'
OR as 'Best of the West' seems to insist.... [see his post in January]....
PANews...... Do you ever say anything nice about any helicopter or do you just bitch about them all.
....it seems that the FAA is doing as I tell them!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will take that thought to my grave!