Say whaaaaaat?! I'm sure Bell Helicopter will be pleased to know that all of the work they'd done developing the tilt-rotor concept since 1953 was actually done by NASA. Sure.
The USN and USMC were looking at the XV-15 which came about as a result of the Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft project run and funded by NASA Ames. Bell was the contractor. Bell did the initial envelope expansion on ship #1 and NASA did flight research (with Bell support) on ship #2 which was permanently stationed at Ames.
Turns out Lehman was right and FH was wrong...again.