Article Posted on : - Feb 27, 2009

The first production VH-71 presidential helicopter completed initial ground vibration testing on schedule after roughly six weeks of tests intended to assess the airframe's vibration characteristics. Lockheed Martin image

NEW YORK (BNS): Lockheed Martin’s VH-71 Presidential Helicopter successfully completed the initial ground vibration testing on schedule in January at the Navy's Presidential Helicopter Support Facility in Patuxent River, Midland. Sources said that the testing was conducted on a pre-missionised aircraft to test the basic airframe.

Naval Air Systems Engineer Bob Riser said that basically the aircraft is lifted off the ground and vibrated for testing. “An accelerometer measures vibration and we see how the aircraft responds. In this case, it responded very well, and the Pilot Production One (PP-1) aircraft completed the initial Ground Vibration Test with no issues,” Riser said.

PP-1 spent roughly six weeks undergoing a series of tests intended to assess the airframe's vibration characteristics. As a production representative aircraft, the results will be used as a baseline measurement for all five VH-71 production helicopters that make up the first phase, or Increment One, of the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter Programme, and to refine models used for structural analysis, officials said.

They said that the aircraft was flown to Lockheed Martin's Owego, New York, facility for integration of mission systems and installation of the cabin interior. PP-1 will undergo a second ground vibration testing period as a fully missionised aircraft to validate modelling results, they said.

Sources said that Lockheed Martin Systems Integration-Owego is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the VH-71 programme with overall responsibility for the programme and aircraft system. AgustaWestland, the principal subcontractor, has responsibility for the basic air vehicle design, production build, and basic air vehicle support functions.

It may be recalled that President Barack Obama speaking at the conclusion of a White House summit on fiscal responsibility on Monday said that he had directed Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates to conduct ‘a thorough review’ of the VH-71 helicopter programme, which had overshot its budget. With Obama’s stand it looks that even before the VH-71 helicopter being developed as the next-generation presidential helicopter takes its first flight, it may be scrapped.