This…

Is the kind of crap that is just… stupid…

The presidential helicopter isn’t supposed to leave scorch marks on the White House lawn. 

Government Accountability Office said in an April report that it “has yet to demonstrate performance requirements related to landing zone suitability, which includes a requirement to land on the White House South Lawn without causing damage to the lawn.”

Full article, HERE.

So this^ is now a ‘high risk’ area that must be fixed… I’m waiting for them to say the cabin door must be moved to the other side of the helicopter because media and photographs…

But NAVAIR is close to signing the LRIP contract, and getting the program going. They have 2 prototypes in house, HERE. The bottom line issue was that on ONE of THIRTEEN test landings, in an ‘unusual’ attitude, caused some discoloration on the lawn…

Gee, you think they ‘might’ want to look at other than perfectly cushy landings, just in case they needed to get on the ground in a hurry for… Oh, maybe REASONS???

So… This is starting to sound like the VH-71 program because of add-ons and ‘additional’ requirements that pushed the costs, Zero Fuel Weight, and other actual aircraft flyability issues into a situation where the program was killed.

This is one of the huge problems with procurement trying to buy any new systems for the military. Congresscritters stick their noses into the process, demanding ‘additions’ that will support ‘their’ districts, yada, yada, yada. This on top of a 12 year average lag between original RFP and actual Initial Operational Capability integration of a system into the actual military…

So effectively the system is already obsolete the DAY it IOCs…

Comments

This… — 21 Comments

  1. Oh! The humanity! A few square feet of lawn scorched in an unusual landing attitude. The White House grounds staff may have to put in a few extra hours to repair the damage once in a blue moon. Redesign the helicopter! Maybe we’ll have to go for a solar powered one. Remember, it’s for the leaves.

  2. NOT climbing on the soapbox. Gonna have my coffee and look at pretty things from the deck.

  3. So last September one out of 14 landings discolored the grass and there have been more flights since then without discolored grass. Trump’s fault, just because…. you can’t make this kind of crap up and Bloomberg prints this bull because Tump’s fault, the man can’t even design a scorch proof helicopter so impeach him.

  4. We’ll get the job done if it takes every penny the DOD has.

    I think they would fire a project manager if they came in on time and budget.

    Sorry but I have a bad taste left from working as a sub on DOD contracts for the big boys.

  5. VH-92A? What happened to the Presidential Osprey? I thought that was on the fast track for a roll out as a Marine One aircraft.

    You know, it might be a good idea to build a concrete pad for the Osprey because it will need one. A big, beautiful, concrete landing pad. The follow-on to the Osprey is supposed to be jet powered and that will really torch the grass, never mind the soot marks that it will leave on the White House landing pad.

    I realize that it would be a breach of security, but they could pull one of those space alien saucers that are warehoused at Area 51. It would be quite a statement if President Trump used one of those bad boys for his state visits. It would also save time. The lumbering 747 could be sent ahead and the First Saucer could bump out of DC Airspace at Mach 40 to land at the same time. Just saying. The next Curtis novel could explore that.

  6. All- Good points, and I’d give the crew chief a can of green paint. Spray paint the problem and be done with it… sigh

    Posted from my iPhone.

    • Green spray paint worked in the Astrodome when the grass wouldn’t grow – and most of us never knew until much later. Gee, a 50+ year old solution to a minor problem.

      • Back in ’63 the family was living in New Orleans. It snowed, yes snowed! over Christmas break. the organizers of the Sugar Bowl decided it wouldn’t do to have brown grass for the big game and painted the field green. After four quarters of hard fought football one could no longer tell the sides by the color of their jerseys. There was only the green team and the slightly lighter green team, except for the punters.

  7. It’s way psst time to have a dedicated pad with built in fire suppression and all the bells and whistles anyways. As for the Presidential Osprey, well, that thing would definitely burn holes in the yard. Big beautiful holes.

    Still need to put in a concrete pad and get over the vapors. Yeesh. Cost? Maybe $30k? $100k if you get fancy?

  8. It obviously burns the lawn because groundsworkers are typically Mexican migrant and Trump has little concern for them because he’s a racist, fascist xenophobe.

  9. Only a loon would worry about this. We’ll all be burnt to a crisp in 12 yrs anyway.*

    *Chiquita Khrushchev said it so you know its true.

  10. I do NOT wish to appear as an apologist for ANYONE/THING of any persuasion. I really don’t.

    But, it occurs to me that in a non-standard landing caused by avoiding incoming fire, the presidential party would HAVE to get the heck out of the chopper and into safety FAST. And, if the landing procedure caused the ground to be on fire, that would truly be an issue.

    So maybe, just maybe there IS a bit of sanity at the heart of this otherwise goofy dithering.
    Ain’t claiming it’s true, mind you. Just, maybe.

  11. All- Good points. Pat, it didn’t catch the grass on fire, it ‘discolored’ it… sigh…

    Posted from my iPhone.

  12. I’m sure Bloomberg will have “reporters” with dB meters around the White House fence line by tomorrow. No doubt the “detrimental noise pollution” will be Tuesday’s headlines.

  13. I want to know just what was the attitude of the helo that would get the engine discharge that close to the ground without the rotors striking the ground and demolishing the whole Aircraft? I haven’t been near/on a military helo in 47 years,(’75) but last time I looked they all had the engines about 6-10 feet above the ground! Oh I know what happened, the whole tail rotor and empennage fell off during a nose high touch down!!! What a frigging crock. Maybe it was one of the newsies shit himself and all over the yard ’cause Trump was coming bak alive!

  14. Stretch- Of course… sigh…

    Ev- LOL, they DO get some significant downdraft off the rotors… 😉

  15. I like the OSPREY suggestion, or something like that.

    But how much cash is invested in the current issue?