Presidential Helicopter

Sorry, the Comanche mess was the Army's fault. They never funded it
fully, never froze the requirement, and allowed the thing to consume
the entire aviation budget.

Workfare for the primes? Who's fault was that? (See what I mean about
Weldon?) Boeing and Sikorsky never fought the Army to keep the thing on
a low burner. The Army insisted it needed the Comanche up to shortly
before the cancellation.

Can you blame the guys on the program for living in the Twilight Zone?
By all accounts the Comanche air vehicles flew as advertised. The
program just never had the money to integrate the air vehicle with the
all-important MEP. Waiting to cancel the thing just when the factory
was starting up was the Army's doing.

US101 and VH-92 off-the-shelf? Trouble is, all that is left is NOT
stuffing in the special avionics, EMI protection, etc. They so
gold-plated the requirement that both aircraft had to grow to carry all
the people and systems.

Navy assistant secretary White said both aircraft needed rotor and
drivetrain improvements to meet VXX objective requirements. That means
the EH101 gets a new rotor system, a new transmission and probably FBW
controls paid for by the US taxpayer. Fixes the Italians and the Brits
needed but couldn't afford will get done on our dime. That version then
gets marketed out of Italy (and the US) to meet future requirements.

China on the S-92? They saw a potentially big market, but I think the
PRC is more risk then reward.

HW