I still doubt that tilt-rotor will gain civil certification,
something now in the promised state for over a decade.

Entirely coincidentally, I found this news from July:
http://snipurl.com/3o0pl [www_avweb_com]
(avweb link to original FWST story is now 404):
"The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported this week that Bell
is shifting most of the development work on the intriguing
aircraft to its partner AgustaWestland, largely because it
will be too pricey to find a market in the U.S..
"We designed the 609 for a new U.S. market and unfortunately
we are not seeing that materialize, so we are looking at all
options that make sense for the future of this program,"
Bell Helicopters CEO Dick Millman said in statement
issued to the newspaper.
...
There are about 80 orders on the books for the aircraft,
which won't be available for delivery until at least 2012."

The BA609 first flew when?
How old are those orders?
Is cert the critical path on the PERT chart to 2012?

Could Sikorsky develop and cert a useful civil X2 by 2012?

--
Regards, Bob Niland
http://www.access-one.com/rjn email4rjn AT yahoo DOT com
NOT speaking for any employer, client or Internet Service Provider.