FLYING Magazine
The White House’s picturesque South Lawn is reportedly getting a renovation that would stop helicopters from charring the grass.
The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that, overnight, crews descended on the South Lawn to begin building a new helipad near the traditional landing spot for Marine One, the call sign for whichever helicopter is carrying the president. One of these rotorcraft, Sikorsky’s VH-92A Patriot, has never lifted off from the White House due to its penchant for torching the lawn.
Sources cited by the Post said that prompted President Donald Trump to undertake the new construction project. The White House and Marine Corps did not respond to the outlet’s inquiries about the project’s timing or cost.
The FAA did not immediately respond to FLYING’s inquiry regarding what coordination, if any, would be required between the agency and White House for Trump to begin using the helipad. Approval of federal and military landing sites falls outside the regulator’s purview.
An unnamed official from Sikorsky parent Lockheed Martin told the Post that the company made a $5 million donation to fund the helipad.
The Marine Corps in August 2024 received the last of 23 VH-92A Patriots, a variant of Sikorsky’s commercial S-92, that it ordered for nearly $5 billion. At the time, there were nine of them flying missions for Marine Helicopter Squadron One (HMX-1).
The Patriots are intended to replace older Marine One rotorcraft, some of which date to the Vietnam War era. HMX-1 also flies Trump using VH-3D Sea Kings and VH-60N White Hawks, a variant of the UH-60 Black Hawk. The helicopters are also known as “white tops” due to their livery.
The effort to replace the Sea Kings and White Hawks with the larger, longer range VH-92As has been long delayed since it began in 2014 under former president Barack Obama. The Associated Press in 2024 reported that the holdup stems from issues with the helicopter’s communication systems—as well as the angle of its exhaust vents, which blast heat toward the ground.
Because of that feature—or flaw, evidently, in the president’s eyes—the VH-92A has been limited to operations outside of the White House complex, such as Trump’s trip to New York City this month for the NBA Finals. A week later, the president landed at the Group of Seven summit in France in a VH-3D.
According to an earlier Post report, discussions surrounding a White House helipad have spanned years and multiple presidential administrations, but there has been little political will for such a project. Officials of former president Joe Biden’s administration were reportedly surprised that the issue was not resolved upon Biden’s 2021 inauguration.
Trump has long had an affinity for rotorcraft. In 1988, he acquired three Sikorsky S-61 helicopters and launched the short-lived Trump Shuttle charter airline.
Per the Trump Organization’s website, the company previously owned and operated a fleet of Trump-branded Sikorsky S-76 helicopters. It currently owns a custom Boeing 757 nicknamed Trump Force One.
As has been the case for Marine One, delays have left Trump without a permanent, dedicated Air Force One aircraft. The U.S. Air Force this month unveiled a modified Boeing 747-8—donated last year by Qatar and referred to by the military as the VC-25B Bridge—to serve as Air Force One until Boeing delivers a pair of VC-25Bs, which will replace older VC-25A aircraft.
Trump will reportedly make his first flight on the VC-25B Bridge on Wednesday.