[1] In December 2010, AgustaWestland's management approved the formation of a team under James Wang with the intention of producing a technology demonstrator incorporating as many new innovations as possible on a single airframe.

[4] According to Wang, those appointed to the team were handpicked, and were typically young and passionate; each member had a specific specialty in one area.

[5] The team quickly decided that, instead of pursuing an electric-powered but otherwise conventional airplane or helicopter, a more radical approach would be adopted: A twin-rotor electric tiltrotor, lacking any transmission or swashplates.

[3] Various companies in Italy, the UK, the U.S. and Japan worked on the design and/or manufacturing of elements of Project Zero, including four different branches of Finmeccanica.

[8] In order to ensure that tangible benefits from the project were made, it was decided that a full-scale aircraft must be produced and flown.

[12] Following the flight testing period, AgustaWestland set about learning from the project and studying means to transfer technologies produced into its existing rotorcraft product line.

[15] AgustaWestland has stated that, when furnished with a suitable powerplant, the aircraft would be capable of speeds equivalent of traditional tiltrotor designs and possess a typical cruising height double that of a conventional helicopter.

The two large rotors of the aircraft are driven by advanced electric motors, which are in turn powered by energy stored in batteries[8][3] The all-electric design eliminates the need for a transmission, as used on conventional aircraft; it also operates with low acoustic and thermal signatures and without a dependency on oxygen.

The demonstrator was designed to accommodate numerous different energy sources for the electric motors; an alternative hybrid propulsion option also exists, this uses a lightweight diesel engine to drive a generator to provide electricity for the motors, which was developed by ORAL Engineering.

[6] In June 2011, the unmanned demonstrator conducted its first tethered flight at AgustaWestland's Cascina Costa facility in Italy.

Flight testing allowed for the fine-tuning of the propulsion system, which resulted in a 30 per cent gain in effective power.