El V-22 Osprey podría ser el futuro helicóptero presidencial "Marine One" de Estados Unidos, para sustituir a los veteranos Sea King.
En su momento Estados Unidos se decidió por el EH101 Merlin, italo-británico. Sin embargo debido su pequeño tamaño, no podía acomodar todos los equipos de comunicación necesarios para montar el "despacho oval volante", necesario para el Presidente. Además los costes se incrementaron hasta llegar a ser superiores a los de un Boeing 747 Air Force One.
El programa ha sido retomado y se han confirmado que participará en el concurso el V-22 Osprey, ya que los Marines, encargados de operar el escuadrón presidencial, están satisfechos con su rendimiento.
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The official helicopter of the US President "Marine One" when he is aboard, may in future be a V-22 "Osprey". Osprey will be considered as the new presidential vertical-takeoff craft. The choppers assigned to presidential VIP transport by the US Marines at present are aged Sea Kings, and the Marines have been trying to replace them for years.
It had been decided to use a variant of the EH101 made in Britain and Italy, modified for presidential requirements. However, the relatively small European aircraft struggled to carry all the required communications kit, described as "an Oval Office in the sky" - not to mention the necessary hardening against electromagnetic pulses from nuclear weapons etc.
In the end it was calculated that each copter would cost more than one of the Air Force One 747.
The programme was duly axed shortly after Obama took office, and the Marines now plan to hold a new competition to find a new replacement for the present, ageing VH-3D Sea Kings. Contenders would naturally be put forward by the major US defence contractors - and it has now been confirmed that Boeing, makers of the Marines' infamous V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, will submit it for consideration.
Last time round the Osprey wasn't ready, for all that.
One major reason that the Merlin was selected the first time around was that it's one of the bigger helicopters which can set down on the White House lawn without causing an unacceptable amount of destruction. This requirement might well have been thought to rule the Osprey out of the running, but if Colonel Masiello is to be believed that's not the case - at least on the matter of wing and rotor span.
That said, it has been officially acknowledged that the Osprey's downward-pointing jet exhausts are so hot and violent as to buckle the steel flight-decks of warships when setting down, so they would presumably cause a major headache for the White House gardeners if the V-22 wins the new competition.
Even so, a few rolls of new turf after every flight (or perhaps a patch of flame-proof astroturf) would be a relatively small expense in the general context of rotary-wing flying, let alone that of the V-22: and the tiltrotor's greater speed and height performance might well be considered an advantage when carrying a passenger whose time and safety are thought so important.
There can't be much doubt that the US Marines, who have fought with unbelievable tenacity to preserve the V-22 through its many troubles, would be glad indeed to use it in the Marine One role.
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