The Pentagon has awarded a contract to begin development of the most expensive helicopters ever made.
Each helicopter will probably cost at least $400 million. The entire project, to build at least 23 helicopters, has been estimated to eventually cost between $10 billion to $17 billion. By comparison, the project could pay the combined defense budgets of Finland, Norway, and Sweden for one year ($16.9 billion).
The passengers for this enormously expensive helicopter fleet? The President of the United States and his entourage.
The first president to fly regularly in helicopters was Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower faced a two-hour commute to and from his summer home in Rhode Island, a commute that could be shaved down considerably if taken by helicopter. In these early days of the Cold War the president needed to be moved around quickly—the president could not be stuck on a ferry for an hour in case the Soviet Union launched a nuclear attack.
The South Lawn of the White House was designated as the official presidential helicopter landing pad, and official flights to Andrews Air Force Base began.
A Marine Corps helicopter squadron, HMX-1 (“The Knighthawks”) is responsible for flying and maintaining the fleet of presidential helicopters. The current Marine One helicopters are derivatives of the Sikorsky Sea King helicopter, which was phased out of the U.S. military during the 1990s. Those currently flying were built somewhere around 1975, making them only 14 years younger than President Obama himself.
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