Marine One aircraft carrying the is the call sign of any United States Marine President of the United States.
It usually denotes one of 19 helicopters operated by the HMX-1 “Nighthawks” squadron, either the large VH-3D or the newer, smaller VH-60N Whitehawk. Both are due to be replaced by the VH-71 (US101), a derivative of the AgustaWestland EH101.
The VH-71 Kestrel which is being developed to replace the is a variant of the AgustaWestland EH101United States Marine Corps’ Marine One Presidential transport fleet.
The first use of helicopters for presidential transport was in 1957, when Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled on an H-13 Sioux. This early aircraft lacked the “creature comforts” found on its modern successors, such as air conditioning and toilets.
More than 800 Marines supervise the operation of the Marine One fleet, which is based in Quantico, Virginia, but is more often seen in action on the South Lawn of the White House, or at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
When invitations were made to industry inviting proposals for replacements, Sikorsky offered their H-92. Lockheed Martin did not have a suitable helicopter and, rather than developing, a new design, offered the European EH101, renamed the US101. The US101 will be built in America using mainly US components with some European content.
The EH101 was developed jointly by the British company Westland and the Italian Augusta, who formed the AugustaWestland company. The helicopter has seen service with the British Army in Bosnia, the Royal Navy in the recent Iraq war and with Canadian Coastguard in search and rescue operations.
General characteristics
- Crew: 4
- Length: 74 ft 10 in (22.81 m)
- Rotor diameter: 61 ft 0 in (18.59 m)
- Height: 21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
- Disc area: 2992 ft² (271 m²)
- Empty weight: 23,150 lb (10,500 kg)
- Useful load: 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 32,188 lb (14,600 kg)
- Powerplant: 3× turboshafts, 2,312 shp (1,725 kW) each
Performance
- Never exceed speed: 167 knots (192 mph, 309 km/h)
- Range: 750 nm (863 mi, 1389 km)
- Service ceiling: 15,000ft (4575 m)
- Rate of climb: 2000 ft/min (10.2 m/s)
- Disc loading: 53.8 kg/m² (11.01 lb/ft²)
- Power/mass: 0.174 shp/lb (284.9 W/kg)
Avionics (EH101)
- Smiths Industries OMI SEP 20 dual-redundant digital automatic flight control system
- BAE Systems LINS 300 ring laser gyro, Litton Italia LISA-4000 strapdown AHRS (naval variants)
- Tactical air navigation (TACAN), VHF Omnidirectional Radio range (VOR), instrument landing system (ILS)
- Eliradar MM/APS-784 maritime surveillance radar (ASW Italian EH101s)
- Officine Galileo MM/APS-705B search/weather radar (Italian Navy Utility EH101s)