I love the look of the Russian counter rotating rotors on their helicopters (The Kamov Ka-50 has to be the meanest looking thing with rotors)! I can't wait for this bird to be released! A few years ago I was at a lecture where one of Igor Sikorsky's brothers (Sergei) was speaking. He related a story that I think took place at one of the Paris airshows where some Sikorsky engineers were attending and speaking with Soviet attendees with one of their newer helicopters. Igor Sikorsky, while not the inventor of the helicopter is widely regarding as the first in making it practical with the introduction of a tail rotor in the design to give better control. Most early Russian designs utilized the counter rotating design to offset the torque of the rotor spin. Sikorsky was born in Russia and designed aircraft for Czar Nicholas' air force. He had also designed and built the first four engine bomber in what was then Imperial Russia. With the fall of the Czar, Sikorsky thought it was best for him to leave for fear of being labeled a 'White Russian' and a target for the Bolsheviks. It's been postulated that since this former son of Mother Russia 'abandoned' his country, it was discouraged in Soviet aviation design bureau's to use his tail rotor designed. But at this Paris air show the new Soviet helicopter had a tail rotor in its design. When a Sikorsky engineer made vocal note to this to a Soviet engineer, the engineer replied, almost as a whisper "A good idea is a good idea". Now this could all be just a story by Sergei, but as a Sikorsky-phile (I live in his U.S. home town), I like it.