Presidential Helicopter

Oh Good Grief, I've sat through enough Curt Weldon speeches to know he
doesn't understand a lot of what he talks about. Comanche was cancelled
because the Army changed its mind. The Army validated a Cold War
requirement for more than 10 years after the Cold War, then dropped it
to fund immediate Aviation needs in OIF. Boeing and Sikorsky gave them
what they asked for.

The strength of American aerospace is in its workers -- not just the
Union guys on assembly lines, but the engineers, program managers, test
technicians, etc. That's why you don't want the design authority on
helicopters to reside offshore.

Bell seems happy to be the LM build-to-print shop for European
helicopters. LM recommended the AB139 to replace the Jayhawk in the
Coast Guard, and they'll pitch the US101 for the Air Force rescue
requirement and other contracts. That gives you assembly jobs in Texas
and software jobs in New York, but it leaves the core engineering work
off-shore. That hurts US competitiveness.

Sikorsky made safety innovations in the H-92 way beyond what was
available when the EH101 was designed. It brought in international
partners to reduce the cost of the project and to get footholds in a
perceived market. The core engineering stayed in the US, and that's
what we need to be competitive.

HW