Biden’s New Helicopter Still Risks Scorching White House Lawn – By Anthony Capaccio (Bloomberg) / Mar 5 2021
- Fix to persistent Lockheed chopper issue sought by mid-year
- Goal to have new Marine One ready for Biden to ride by July
President Joe Biden may have to wait months longer to ride on a new Marine One helicopter because the aircraft designed by Lockheed Martin Corp. continues to pose a risk of scorching the South Lawn of the White House.
The Marine Corps and company officials say they hope to identify potential solutions as soon as June to the unsightly problem of burned grass caused by spinning rotors and engine exhaust, which has bedeviled the chopper for two years.
Even with the flaw unresolved, the Navy has placed on contract all 23 of the planned Lockheed VH-92A helicopters — known as Marine One when the president is on-board — in a $5 billion program. The goal is to be ready to ferry Biden as soon as July.
But that timeline may depend on a fix for the problem of the charred lawn that first occurred in September 2018. Actual and potential landing zone damage “was found to be primarily due to engine exhaust, auxiliary power unit exhaust and discharge of aircraft fluids onto the grass,” the Pentagon testing office said in its latest annual report on major weapons systems, issued in January.
