Bell bearish on the 609

I always thought that the USA was developing new commercial aircraft via the military.

If you think that a civil tilt-rotor is a good idea, you first develop it thru the military (get the tax payer to pay for it, like the Boeing 707 who greatly benefit from military tanker development money).

So built the V-22, get all the development cost pay by the army (tax payer), then use all that knowledge and built the civil tilt-rotor (Bell 609).

Now it appear that Bell will let Agusta/Westland finish the 609 (and possibly get the potential benefit).

www.star-telegram.com...

The sad thing, is while Bell was busy on that 609, they neglected the conventional commercial helicopters (thinking the future was tilt-rotor) and let Eurocopter leap-frog them (Bell market share shrunk, soon Eurocopter will have more birds in the air).

So instead of US tax payer indirectly subsidized (everybody subsidized the aircraft industry, either directly or via military) the commercial side and get an advantage over the competition (Europe) it will be the US tax payer giving an edge to a foreign country.

Not the way, it used to be???

The 609 is going to be a gas guzzler and a maintenance nightmare and Bell knows it. If they had got it finished 10 years ago it might of been worthwhile but not with todays gas prices and receding economy. Bell cut it's loses and left Augusta holding an unwanted bag but still left itself some room for publicity if for some reason it is successful.