Lockheed Conducts VH-92A Presidential Helicopter Initial Flight

Lockheed Martin has completed the initial flight of a VH-92A test aircraft as part of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Presidential Helicopter Replacement Program.

The test aircraft’s first flight on July 28 at Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut involved an airfield pass, low speed flight and hover control checks and marked the start of the test flight program that will occur at Lockheed’s Owego, New York-based facilities, Lockheed said Thursday.

The initial flight came a year after Lockheed completed the program’s critical design review phase.

“Having independently tested the aircraft’s components and subsystems, we are now moving forward to begin full aircraft system qualification via the flight test program,” said Spencer Elani, director VH-92A program at Sikorsky.

Another test aircraft – Engineering Development Model 2 – is scheduled to fly later this year as part of the 250-hour test flight program for VH-92A, which is based on Sikorsky’s S-92A commercial plane.

VH-92A is designed to transport the U.S. president, vice president and other government officials and is scheduled for deployment in 2020.

Lockheed’s Sikorsky subsidiary received a potential $1.24 billion contract from the U.S. Navy in May 2014 to build four production planes and two test aircraft.

The contract contains production options for 17 aircraft that are set to be finalized in fiscal 2019.