PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Sikorsky wins Presidential helo competition
Old 9th May 2014, 13:10
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dangermouse
 
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VH71 variants

GK is nearly right...

The batch of aircraft delivered were to cover development of the increment 1 aircraft (TV2-5) plus a few (PP01-05) to allow the aircraft to enter service prior to a further production batch for full POTUS transport (TV1 was an MMI aircraft used to give NAVAIR a headsup on the platform, this aircraft is now back with the Italian Navy).

The PPs would have been fully NAVAIR compliant and would have been capable of carrying the Prez, the TV aircraft not as much as they were test assets.

So TV2-5 and PP1-5 were sold to Canada

Increment 2 would have been a significantly improved aircraft (an EH102?) that met the full desired capability (it was recognsied that neither aircraft proposed could meet the full desired capability of the White House without significant mods, hence the two increment approach)

The increment 2 aircraft would have been delivered as a batch of new builds plus a retro package on the initial airfranmes to arrive at the final desired capable aircraft, no hardware had been cut or designs close to being finallised when the plug was pulled.

So AW did deliver (as contracted ) 8 off increment 1 aircraft on time and budget to the Prime (LM) who ultimately were responsible for delivering the VXX capability to the US Navy. The growth in requirements was really an issue for LM but it impacted AUM etc of the basic airframe even at inc1 standard.

DM
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