New presidential helicopter

[Felix/FFDS]

Yes, don't you remember? The great Mr. Sikorsky (God rest his soul) started his wonderful work where he lived in Germany. He ended up getting fed up with the German government's lack of support and and belief in the usefullness in the helo (along with telling him that it would never suceede and that he should stick to planes instead) after a number of failures. Eventualy he said, F**k you government! I'm moving somewhere where my work will be appricated and supported! You are the weakest link; goodbye!" (updated paraphrase version ) and he moved here to the U.S. with his creations to continue his work toward helo aviation. It has to be one of our all time best steals from other countries. Thank you Germany.

Other than the fact that Igor Sikorsky was Russian, and did most of his early aircraft design work for the Imperial Russian Air Service,and that he left after the Bolshevik revolution made it "difficult" ...

[Scorpiоn]

So I'm not crazy...

I thought Sikorsky was Russian.

Fozzer, I must correct you on Southern eloquence. The whole point of relaxing "W" is to reduce the number of syllables.  Thus, dub-bull-ya offers no advantage over duh-bull-you.  It would be more correct to say dub-ya.

How anyone manages to pronounce out a web address the Yankee/English way is beyond me. Tongue-twisting!

[IcedFoxtrotter]

Sorry may bad, I always get germany and russia crosssed. Russia huh, well an even better steal than.

[denishc]

 Getting back to the question at hand..........
 The logical choice would be the American designed S-92.  Unless the DoD is willing to buy a quantity of EH-101s it wouldn't be cost effictive to train crews, both flight and maintenance, as well as to purchase and store parts for just a handful of helos (assuming the President needs more then one helo).  Since the S-92 is based on the Blackhawk design trained crews and parts should be readily available.
 Not that the U.S. hasn't bought foreign before.  The U.S. has purchased English designs, like the Canberra (which became the B-57 in U.S. hands) and the Harrier (that led to the AV-8).
 But bear in mind that this is an election year here in the U.S. and nothing inspires the American voter to vote for you like having a job, espacilly after the cancellation of the Camanche project.

[Craig.]

i will try to get some info on what exactly will happen. But i would imagine if the Merlin is chosen(apparently a good chance of it happening) westlands will start off the work and bring in pilots and engineers from Lockheed Martin, basically run them through everything train them up and hand over complete building to them as soon as possible, much like what happend with the harrier, and alot like the army are doing with the apache. I wouldnt be so sure about the whole they would only use american made aircraft, where some people get these ideas from is beyond me, If the Merlin prooves to be the better choice it will be picked. This is hardly a choice to be made of national pride over quality and safety. In the end it will secure US jobs for either company so again not a huge deal

[Fozzer]

[quote].....Fozzer, I must correct you on Southern eloquence. The whole point of relaxing "W" is to reduce the number of syllables.

[ATI_7500]

Woah,this should be a helo for Dubya? I thought it was for Mr.Blair,since Craig talked about a president (might have gotten that wrong) and the Ministery of Defense (this indicated to that it must have been in Britain).

Oh well.........Mr. Bush,here's your new helo:


*Silent runs*



But some bicycling would be good for you,too,Mr. President.

*Silent runs again*

[Craig.]

lol blairs prime minister.

[Woodlouse2002]

Of course, Mr. Blair will be countering this new american Helicopter. He's getting Little Nellie!!! No pedling for him!

[ATI_7500]

Prime Minister,President,all the same to me...

[IcedFoxtrotter]

*Bush picks up the phone*

You guys are horrible.

*P&W F100's start spooling*

Seriously though, isn't that a gyrocopter, not a helo?

*F-15 squadrons take off and head east over the atlantic*

[Hagar]

It is indeed a Bensen Gyrocopter. http://www.vortechonline.com/bensen/

Little Nellie used in the Bond film is a Wallis Autogyro.
http://www.kenwallisautogyro.com/
It was developed from an earlier Bensen model by Wing Commander Ken Wallis at my local airport of Shoreham. I watched him testing the prototype in the early days. It was later marketed as the Beagle-Wallis WA.116. Beagle Aircraft's chief test pilot "Pee Wee" Judge (a wonderful man & a friend of mine) was sadly killed while demonstrating one at the 1970 Farnborough Air Display.
http://www.aircraftdesigns.com/gyro2.html

[Craig.]

F15's run out of fuel after forgetting to stop in greenland, fall into atlantic. However if you put some thought into it, you could have just used the F15's at RAF Valley in wales either way they come up against the eurofighter and it aint gonna make much differance where they came from.  ::)

As for Blairs transport, look at those ears, all he needs to do is tilt his head forward and catch an updraft

[IcedFoxtrotter]

Eurofighter takes out F-15E? Yeah, that'll be the day.

1 AM: *B-2's silently take off from Georgia with KC-10's*

[Craig.]

no offense but you honestly have no idea of how good the typhoon is if thats what you think. Its already prooven itself to be almost as good as the F-22 with stealth ability being the only thing that means it isnt as good, its god knows how many times more manuverable than the F-15, has a better radar system and uses most of the same weapons. I'm afraid the F-15 is getting on in years and better aircraft have overtaken it. Why do you think they havent gone up against each other in wargames despite numerous requests for it.