I just picked up the new Italeri catalogue the other day and guess what, they're doing die-cast planes in 1/72nd too! The two they had pictures of where an F-18E Hornet and an AH-64 Apache. What with the traditional sharing of moulds for their kits with Revell a tie-up on die-cast too wouldn't surprise me at all.
Traditionally competition is a good thing for the quality of products people make, I just hope Revell and Italeri aren't too good!
Rich.