Buy Your Own V22, Kinda: Bell 609 Civilian Tiltrotor Gets Rolled-Out

Forget the improbable promises of the Falx tiltrotor: Bell aircraft has rolled out its 609 civilian tiltrotor for real. Looking and flying like a smaller cousin of the military V22 Osprey, also a Bell vehicle, the 609 will undoubtedly please millionaire business people since it can perform all the rooftop-landing duties of a normal helicopter, but flies twice as fast and can fly 9 passengers up to 25,000 feet altitude. Plus, it'd be undeniably cooler to turn up at your meetings in something that looks like it belongs in a sci-fi flick versus something that reminds people of Magnum, PI. More »

Falx Promises Private Tilt-Rotor Aircraft. Verdict: Improbable

This small V-22 Osprey lookalike looks like a sleek and sexy machine, doesn't it? The Falx Salker is a VTOL aircraft and is designed to be a hybrid electric vehicle, with solar energy augmenting the 100hp engine to achieve a fuel efficiency of 10 liters per hour of flight. According to their website, Falx Air Vehicles is "set to release its first 100% scale platform during 2008 leading to certification during the next 3 years." More »