Warbird Information Exchange

watched nbc nightly news tonight. one topic raised was prez obama's newly proposed marine 1 chopper is raising a stink with washington bean counters re: the economy / bail outs / budget cuts etc. the current marine 1 or 1's date back to prez carter. a few years after 9/11 prez bush's advisors suggested a new marine 1 chopper for the president, due to national security issues, the old choppers are woefully obsolete etc. the new chopper proposed will carry many pounds of secure communications gear, a 14 passenger capacity, armor plating to withstand a hand fired missile, & a limited survivability in the event of being in proximity of a nuclear strike, not to mention the ability to fly further & faster than the current sikorskis. this is a u.s. navy venture. the proposed order of 28 of the new whirlybirds has been stuck in cost over runs & red tape since 2005. obama himself aknowledged on tv that his current sikorsky is fine. as taxpayers what's your answer?? i for one say get the new whirlybirds as the old ones are pushing 40 years old, & yes like it or not this new president is a walking target like no other before him, not to mention that the leader of the free world shouldn't have to be shuttled around in an old eggbeater.

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Before someone gets all warped out of shape, those EUROCOPTERS were ordered, with NO OTHER BIDS accepted back in 2005 by the previous administration, so stop it!

_________________
Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I'd say spend the money. I'm usually against defense spending but they shoudl just cram this one through and gedder done. Of all people, El Jeffe's birds should be up to date

_________________
"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."

Its not a Eurocopter, its a Westland design, teamed with Lockheed. Sikorsky had a competing bid using the S-92 design, but was not selected.

The problem is that the bureaucrats have ammended the original design by committee, and there in lies the problem. They have lost the prime mission for the helo. They want this aircraft to do everything that the VC-25 can do, and land and take off like a helicopter. The POTUS is not going to be in this aircraft for hours at a time, why does he need all of the recources that a VTOL flying White House has.

_________________
If God had wanted man to fly behind a flat motor, Pratt Whitney would've built one.

to bad uncle sam can't work the kinks out of the ov -22 osprey, & use that as marine 1. if they could get the kinks out of it so it's safe enough for the president it would pay off for the troops.

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

my cousin is helping design those aircraft.

_________________
Shop the Airplane Bunker At
www.warbirdbunker.com