Helicopters Being Replaced In Great Britain And US
As helicopters used for ferrying the royalty of Great Britain
and the President of the United States wear out, new aircraft by an
all American firm will be able to provide a sufficient aircraft to
Her Majesty. However; another US manufacturer using an
essentially British-designed airframe may not fit the White
House mission.
On November 19, Sikorsky officials in the US announced that it
will continue to be the helicopter of choice to be used by Her
Majesty the Queen, and will deliver a custom-made chopper in 2009
to the Queens Helicopter Flight.
"The new S76 C++ (shown above) will provide the Royal Family
with a helicopter service for official engagements, was chosen
as... providing the best value and producing the lowest carbon
footprint," said Captain Christopher Pittaway, Manager and Chief
Pilot of The Queen's Helicopter Flight.
Sikorsky was very pleased about the announcement.
"We are honored that the Royal Family... entrust their safety
and comfort to us," said Steve Estill, a marketing Vice President
for Sikorsky.
At the same time in the US, the President's "Marine One"
helicopter is also being replaced. The aircraft chosen by the Navy
for the President's helicopter "Marine One" is to be built by
Lockheed Martin, based on a British design known as
the Merlin, made by AgustaWestland. The AgustaWestland
firm was to supply the Merlin based airframe in order to
replace the elder "Marine One" Sikorsky.
But the Navy's requirements, and 800 design changes, may take it
out of the running. Lockheed Martin's winning design has left the
new bird, the VH-71, some 2,000 pounds overweight. Efforts to fix
the problem have required such a rethinking of its structure that,
in the words of one source quoted by Newsweek, "we're essentially
designing a new helicopter." In a $1.7 billion deal, Lockheed was
to fit the helicopters to be resilient against a nuclear blast and
also fitted with a communications suite equal to that of the
Oval Office, as well as state of the art missile defenses, and a
14-person cabin (complete with executive bathroom).
The problem according to the Register in London, is that the
Merlin can't sustain a hover in dead air, and the craft has been
known to have problems while heavily loaded.
While the Navy and Lockheed Martin have had many discussions
over helicopter's design, Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield
acknowledged "some requirement misunderstandings early in the
program," but he said that Lockheed and the Navy are now "in
agreement … and have made significant progress."
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