Are you sure thats just folding for storage?
Looks more like a decepticon in mid-transform to me.
President Obama's personal helicopter fleet will soon include the famous, controversial V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, according to reports. However it seems unlikely that the amazing plane-copter combo craft will land on the White House lawn very often. A V-22 Osprey coming in to land at the Pentagon. Credit: US Navy/Mass …
But we have come a long way from when the president was considered something of an arbiter of public affairs to today's Prussian-style unitary President complete with Military-Grade Führertransporter.
"We all adore Jefferson but we live in Hamilton's world"
Beer because we can Hail to that!
Instead of the AW101(nee EH101) Merlin perhaps they should try a VH-71 Kestrel instead >:oP
As for the RAF cargo variant only carrying 4 tonnes, is that right? what have they done to it? Specs sheet is for 5.1 Tonnes... (from max takeoff of 16.5 and empty 10.4)
A V22 is going to do wondrous things to those tourists standing at the white house lawn fence..
Generally when an aircraft is demoed for politicians crashes and kills its first crew it get cancelled. However, with some Marine stubborness and lot of pork corruption the V-22 Albatross is here to stay. Isn't defense (offense right?) industry welfare a beautiful thing?
Total cost of ownership - it's a matter of lifetime and replacement costs
A monarch can do you 60-70 years if they are painted regularly whereas a president you might have to upgrade every 4-5 years.
Then a presidential election can costs $Bn whereas to get a new monarch all you need is a rugby player and a bottle of Lambrusco.
Err.. for the RN Merlin that's quite a good idea. Any helicopter will lift more with a rolling take off, or an in ground effect take off for those without wheels, designing one to be able to use that extra performance to carry more stuff makes it more useful.
Besides it's not like they fly around with a full warload that often, its not good for the torpedoes if you're not planning on using them anytime soon.
Enquiring minds need to know - which Blackhawk model takes 24 seated troops or a medical staff and 16 stretchers that can come out of each Merlin?
The Blackhawk is not going anywhere with the Merlins underslung load of 5440 kg - at least no further than the end of the hoist line.
The Blackhawk is a very fine helicopter but this is silly.