The White House has confirmed that contractors are redoing a new helipad built on the South Lawn to accommodate a new supersized Marine One chopper recently added to the presidential transport fleet.
A White House official said the changes to the circular concrete landing pad were ordered as “we continue to make improvements as part of the ongoing project to best match the needs of the White House”.
The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Donald Trump was unhappy with the pad’s appearance and the lawn’s slope. The paper said construction crews had been working “around the clock” to finish the project, which the president hoped would be completed before the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to the US in late September.
While helicopters do not strictly require a level surface, the outlet said that downward gradient of the White House lawn, which slopes as much as ۲۰ degrees in some spots, might also have to be changed so the helipad, too, could sit level with the horizon.
Last week, a ۱۰۰ft-wide granite presidential seal that was beginning to take shape was then observed to have been dug up again, the outlet observed.
The helipad is the latest in Trump’s controversial improvement projects, including the construction of a White House ballroom on the side of East Wing and a new lining in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
Others on the drawing board include a garden of heroes and a triumphal arch complete with a ۶۰ft gilded bronze winged Lady Liberty statue, flanked by a pair of enormous gilded eagles.
The new helipad is expected to feature a carved granite presidential seal and cost $۵m to $۶m, funded entirely by helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The new Marine One, a militarized variant of the Sikorsky S-۹۲, or VH-۹۲A Patriot, manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft, has exhaust vents that direct heat downward. It is considerably larger and more powerful than the previous Sikorsky SH-۳ Sea King.
Security upgrades on the already larger new helicopter meant more weight, requiring the twin jet engines to work harder to take off and land while the vents directing heat downwardmake singeing the lawn more likely.
The new VH-۹۲A helicopter has been developed as the new Marine One for more than a decade. In ۲۰۲۴, Joe Biden rode it from Chicago’s O’Hare international airport to Soldier Field. Around the same time, the Marine Corps took delivery of the last of the ۲۱-helicopter fleet – plus two test versions – “in support of the executive lift mission” at a cost $۴.۹۵bn, or about $۲۱۵m each.
Currently, Trump is using the Ellipse – a park south of the White House – as a landing pad for Marine One.
“For years, the White House has desperately needed a proper Helipad on White House grounds that will allow the president to land safely and also protect the beautiful South Lawn grass from the fierce exhaust fumes of the incredible Marine One,” the White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.
He added that “thanks to President Trump, the White House has never looked better, and it will only continue to get better under his leadership”.
