VH-53D Considered in the 1970s
The CH-53D was considered for Presidential missions in the 1970s. Rotor down wash was cited as one of the main reasons for rejecting it. One aircraft was actually painted in the traditional white top paint scheme and traveled around with the VH-3s as a support bird. The CH-53E’s disk loading is considerably higher than the D. This issue was obviously over looked when the EH-101 was recently selected by the Navy. The EH-101 at 32500 lbs and the CH-53D at 42000 lbs have approximately the same disk loading and resulting down wash velocities.