Piasecki first developed the ducted tail rotor in the 1950's. At that time (if memory serves) they made a helicopter that topped 200 mph (we're talking the 1950's so that's an impressive speed). Fast forward to today and the US Army is looking for a future rotorcraft that flies faster and higher.
So why isn't the Speed Hawk getting a serious look?
The retrofit to legacy helicopters would be simple and if weight reduction was conducted then you'd see standard helos approaching 350+ mph.
Solutions are readily available to the requirements that the military puts out. Everything that we desire today has been on the Pentagon wish list going back to WW2. Maybe we should dust off the work that was done by our forefathers with slide rules and use our advanced tech to make their dreams and our needs come true.
We did it with the Orion Spacecraft (call it big Apollo) and we can do it with the SpeedHawk.
