Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) runs test flights of the new VH-92A over the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 22, 2018.

Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1) runs test flights of the new VH-92A over the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 22, 2018. USMC photo by Sgt. Hunter Helis

Brand New Marine One Helicopter To Make Debut at Trump’s July 4th Parade

Other aircraft slated to fly over include the B-2 stealth bomber, F-22 Raptor and Air Force One.

The U.S. military’s new Marine One helicopter is scheduled to make its public debut Thursday as part of the military July 4 Washington flyover called for by President Trump.

Even though it’s still in testing and not expected to fly Trump until at least late next year, the VH-92 is slated to join the VC-25A, a Boeing 747 better known as Air Force One when the president is on board. Two sources with knowledge of the military’s plans confirmed the VH-92 is scheduled to participate in Trump’s “Salute to America.” ABC News first reported the new helicopter would participate.

An Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is also slated to fly over, CNN reports. Fighter jets, including the F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team is also slated to participate in the festivities.

Even though the new VH-92 is not ready to fly the president, the rest of the aircraft already sports the iconic dark green livery that’s become synonymous with the aircraft of Marine Helicopter Squadron One. The Marines are testing three of the helicopters, made by Sikorsky, which is owned by defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

One of the new Marine One helicopters made a series of test landings at the White House in September. More recently, President Trump watched one of the helicopters make a test landing on the South Lawn last month.

While the cost of a new Air Force One plane has drawn the president’s scorn, the new Marine One helicopters are far from cheap. An April 11 Government Accountability Office report said it would cost taxpayers $4.95 billion to develop and buy 23 new helicopters. That’s more than $215 million each. But the cost of the project has actually fallen 4.5 percent from 2014 estimates, GAO said.

Just last month, the Pentagon ordered six of the helicopters from Sikorsky.

The project has been much more stable than its previous effort to replace the VH-3D Sea King helicopters, which have been flying presidents since the 1970s. The Pentagon spent $3.2 billion on the prior before then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled the project in 2009.

The new Marine One — based on Sikorsky’s commercial S-92, a helicopter widely used in the oil and gas industry to fly workers to offshore platforms — has not been without problems of its own. For instance, GAO revealed in April 2018 that the new presidential helicopters were so powerful that they could tear up the White House lawn.

“The program has still not fully met this requirement and its assessment of this risk has increased since our last report,” GAO said in its latest assessment in April. “According to program officials, Sikorsky expects to have a solution for this requirement by November 2020.”

President Trump owns two Sikorsky S-76 helicopters, which he is not allowed to fly in as long as he is president.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.