President takes to the skies – but what  you might not know about is Marine One,  

the state of the art, luxury $215  million Presidential helicopter  

often reserved for the direst emergencies-  or yet another taxpayer funded round of golf.  

That's right – The POTUS has their very own  personal chopper, ready to be utilized anytime,  

anywhere. The price of your average commercial  helicopter runs from lows of around $250,000  

to the low millions, which begs the question  – What makes Marine One so insanely expensive,  

with a cost around a hundred times what you can  expect for an average non-combat helicopter? 

Let's take a step inside this flying  presidential suite and find out. 

First, we need to get technical –  because Marine One isn't always just  

one helicopter. It's the military call sign  for any helicopter carrying the President,  

and is operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron  One – also known by the way cooler name,  

“Nighthawks” – who are based in Quantico,  Virginia. The two varieties of Marine One  

currently available are a larger variant of  the Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King, and the smaller,  

lighter Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk – a name you may  find familiar from the 2001 movie Black Hawk Down.  

The respective unit costs for each of these two  helicopters are typically south of ten million,  

but they've still provided safety and  reliability for US Presidents for over a decade. 

However, this is expected to change in 2021,  with the introduction of an entirely new piece  

of Marine One technology, and the star  of today's video: The Sikorsky VH-92A. 

The VH-92A is the beast with the $215 million  price tag, per unit. This marvel of technology  

has been in the works since October of 2014, when  the US Navy granted a $1.24bn engineering and  

manufacturing development contract to Sikorsky – a  subsidiary of weapons development company Lockheed  

Martin. After several years of development and  testing, the Nighthawks themselves finally gave  

their seal of approval after a test take-off  and landing at the White House in 2018. Upon  

its release, the VH-92A will be one of the most  advanced helicopters in the world, with a list of  

design features that would make any mechanical  engineer worth their salt start blushing. 

So what goes into protecting the  most powerful golfer on earth? 

This new Marine One offers state of the art  encrypted mission communications technology:  

The Collins Aerospace Proline communication  and navigation radios – which gives Marine One  

full-duplex satellite communications capabilities.  The helicopter also takes advantage of an ARC-244A  

digital FM radio, twinned with a MIL-STD  1553 avionics data bus. In layman's terms,  

it uses a particularly advanced computer system  to transfer data efficiently between the various  

component parts of the helicopter with full  independence of any external computer systems.  

And, as a little cherry on top, Marine  One also has integrated onboard Wi-Fi,  

thanks to a Wi-Fi router and ethernet cable,  so the President can tweet from above. 

But the cutting-edge avionics – meaning,  electrical equipment fitted into an  

aircraft – don't stop there. The cockpit,  manned by one pilot and one co-pilot, also  

boasts two high-tech display control panels,  and four multi-functional display units,  

for unparalleled awareness and control. It  even features spare flight critical systems,  

preventing what is known as a “single point  failure.” Couple that with a traffic collision  

avoidance system, or TCAS, a health and usage  monitoring system, or HUMS, an enhanced ground  

proximity warning system, or EGPWS, and an  advanced weather radar – and you have yourself a  

perfect recipe for a truly Presidential flight. But you're probably thinking: Well, accounting  

for traffic and the weather is one thing, but  what about other safety features? This thing  

costs an eighth of a billion dollars here, and  we're dealing with the leader of the free world.  

Thankfully, the VH-92A has you covered there,  too. The engineers behind Marine One have truly  

thought of everything, including de-icing systems,  lightning protection, flaw tolerance, built-in  

protections against electromagnetic interference  – to keep the helicopter protected from an  

electromagnetic pulse in the event of a nuclear  explosion – and even bird-strike protection,  

for if the world decides to go all Alfred  Hitchcock during one of the President's flights. 

What if someone decides to attack the  President while in transit though? 

Of course, the system isn't just designed to  defend against potential acts of god – Marine  

One is also designed to account for potential  enemy attacks. One of its two main lines of  

defence are its laser-based directional infrared  countermeasures, or DIRCMs. Because most offensive  

air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles  work on the principle of infrared seeking,  

the DIRCMs on Marine One pulse out infrared  flashes that confuse the tracking systems  

of potential incoming missiles, essentially  jamming them. But that's not all Marine One  

has up its exceedingly expensive sleeves. This  chopper is fitted with decoy launchers, capable  

of firing out a distracting payload to redirect  the attention of an incoming deadly projectile. 

Throw in ballistic armour and advanced sensors  that can warn the pilots of impending attack far  

in advance, and you have a flying Presidential  fortress that's exceptionally hard to take down  

through any but the most extreme measures. But hey, nothing's foolproof. What if these  

defence or safety systems failed, whether from  an incoming missile or a flock of particularly  

Anti-American pigeons? If the helicopter ever  fell from the sky, would it become a fiery lump of  

metal filled with Presidential puree? Thankfully,  no, because those engineers are at it again. The  

Fuselage – meaning, the main body of the aircraft  – has been designated crashworthy by all testing  

metrics. According to official releases from  Sikorsky, the Fuselage has a “twin turbo-shaft  

power-plant and a fully-articulated composite main  rotor.” The helicopter's retractable try-cycle  

landing gear includes three separate twin-wheel  units, ensuring a soft and stable landing. 

And the crash-safety measures don't stop  there, either. Special care has been taken  

to make sure the self-contained fuel system  is as crashworthy as physically possible,  

reducing the risk of a fire breaking out in the  event of a crash. Even the seats are designed  

to absorb the energy of a crash, keeping  the Marine One helicopter's passengers safe  

if it ever came crashing down. So, you can rest  assured that Marine One is the safest anyone could  

possibly be inside a helicopter – which definitely  contributes to its utterly insane price tag. 

The engine is no slouch in this department,  either. The craft is powered by two General  

Electric CT7-8A turboshaft engines – each of which  is probably worth more than your house. The Marine  

One helicopter's power plant is also fitted with a  pneumatic starting system and an integral particle  

separator, with a Honeywell 36-150 auxiliary  power unit to supply emergency juice to all  

the revolutionary onboard systems we've just  described to you. All this power equates to an  

impressive flying height of 14,000 feet above sea  level, and a startling speed of 165 knots – with  

a cruise speed of 151 knots. This equates to  around 189 miles per hour and 174 miles per hour,  

respectively. For some perspective, the top speed  of the new Marine One is around twenty-five knots  

greater than that of an average helicopter,  which typically levels out at around 140 knots. 

Only the best for the  President of the United States. 

Of course, no vehicle would ever be truly  presidential if it lacked the creature comforts  

that America's highest political office has become  synonymous with. Air Force One is a luxury plane,  

so is Marine One a luxury helicopter? You better believe it. 

In addition to the free Wi-Fi, the new Marine One  has the rare helicopter luxury of true standing  

room, at 1.83 metres – or six feet. So, President  Trump, who's believed to be 6”2, would only need  

to crouch slightly to fit in the main cabin.  The Marine One helicopter is roomy by anyone's  

standard with its 1.2 metre, or around four  feet, width – with a capacity of around nineteen  

passengers, or ten passengers if you want to have  a little more leg room. And while helicopters are  

typically unbearably noisy, the Marine One cabin  is designed with low acoustics in mind, so the  

passengers can speak to one another in a normal  tone of voice despite the powerful rotor outside. 

While there are certain limitations to what we  can currently know about the décor of the new  

Marine One, based on the fact it isn't supposed  to enter service until next year, we can make  

some reasonable assumptions from President  Trump's very specific interior design tastes.  

Some preliminary renderings show the plush,  white leather interiors we've come to expect  

when we think of “Presidential opulence.” As  indicated by the interior of his private 757 jet,  

and modifications to the interior of  previous Marine One models, President  

Trump shows a preference for chrome, cream, and  woodgrain surfaces, none of which come cheap. 

If his gold-plated New York apartment wasn't  enough of a clue, President Trump has a taste for  

conspicuous consumption, and the interior of the  new Marine One is unlikely to buck that trend. 

From the outside, the livery of the new Marine  One is best described as “classic.” It's largely  

a dark military green, with the iconic white top  of all the Marine One helicopters. This colour  

scheme is so intrinsic to every model of Marine  One that the helicopters are often colloquially  

known as “White Tops.” And if you think the  hefty $215 Million price tag on one of them could  

leave you without any money left for rent,  wait until you hear that the US Government  

put in an order for six of them as part of a  first low rate initial production contract.  

A little excessive, don't you think? After all,  the President can only fly one of them at a time. 

Well, yes and no. While buying six Marine Ones may  seem like a classic exercise in Trumpian excess,  

it's actually part of a wider safety tactic  employed by the Nighthawks for a number of years  

called the “Presidential Shell Game.” In an  emergency situation, when the Marine One flies,  

it does so with a formation of five  identical decoy helicopters meant to  

protect the president's personal helicopter  from attack. It seems bizarre that the US  

Government would employ a technique typically  reserved for aspiring magicians to protect  

the President, but seeing as Marine One hasn't  been downed yet, there must be something to it. 

While it'll never be the President's  primary mode of transportation – after all,  

Air Force One is just more practical for  long-distance and cross-country travel – it  

does accompany the President everywhere he goes.  Marine One and its doppelgangers are typically  

transported – along with the President's luxury  limousine – on either a C-17 Globemaster or C-5  

Galaxy military transport aircraft, ready to  roll out and take off at a moment's notice.  

In a situation where the President is under  direct attack, there's rarely time to gear  

up Air Force One for an immediate flight – and  the Presidential Motorcade is considerably more  

vulnerable than Marine One to all forms of  attack, from improvised bombs to roadblocks. 

While, as helicopters go, Marine One is built  with luxury in mind, it's never been the primary  

intention. The function of the Marine One  helicopter in all its forms since President  

Eisenhower's tiny, cramped Bell H-13J during the  Cold War is to facilitate a quick getaway for the  

President if the situation turns South, whether  the problem is a terrorist attack or the beginning  

of a nuclear war. In the beginning, the duty of  Marine One – once referred to instead as Army  

One – was shared between the US Army, the Marines,  and the Secret Service. The title made the final  

switch to “Marine One” in 1976 after the United  States Marine Corps took over operation entirely. 

Unsurprisingly, the whole program got a major  shot in the arm after the September 11 Attacks  

in 2001. With the fear of another attack on the  nation's key power centres imminent, the pressure  

to drive innovation towards better-protected  presidential vehicles increased massively.  

It was a few years after this, and against stiff  competition from other defence contractors, that  

Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircrafts secured  the contract for designing and building the  

President's personalised Marine One helicopters  from then on. While, thankfully, the second attack  

on the United States never actually came, we  were left with a path of design innovation  

that lead to the $215 million technological  marvel that keeps President Trump safe today. 

If a United States President is lucky, they  won't have to use Marine One all that much,  

seeing as it's reserved for less-than-ideal  situations. However, without this piece of  

cutting-edge aviation technology, the President  is under considerably greater risk of attack – and  

considerably greater risk of that attack being  successful. As a heart-warming final touch,  

during a presidential inauguration, the Nighthawks  offer the outgoing President one final ride in the  

Marine One from the Capitol to Joint Base Andrew,  where their tenure as President officially ceases. 

And thanks to that $215 million price tag, it'll  be the safest helicopter ride they've ever taken. 

Check out “The INSANE Protection of the President  of The United States” and “The President's  

Escape Plan if the US is Attacked” for more  fascinating facts about Presidential Protection!