The mere idea that an S-97 is an appropriate demonstrator for an FVL contract is flat out preposterous. The ABC coaxial design simply does not scale up to the size mandated by FVL-medium and above and maintain any sort of high speed characteristics. Sikorsky knows this quite well.
The fact that Sikorsky (and now additionally Boeing) truly are moving forward under the guise of leveraging what is a lame-duck S-97 aircraft, provided that AAS funding is indeed cut, for their FVL demonstrator is essentially confirmation that they are merely trying to kill the FVL program entirely and keep making money off Blackhawk and Apache variation ad infiniteum.
Last edited by SansAnhedral; 7th Oct 2013 at 12:22.