Bush gives Westland lift

DON'T tell the American public but, in a secluded part of Somerset, they have just started building the first of a batch of new helicopters - the latest version of Marine One - for the US President.

When the £850m contract was awarded in January for 26 US101 helicopters for the Presidential flight - with American firm Lockheed Martin as lead contractor, Bell of the US as aircraft producer and Westland as design partner - it was expected that the aircraft would be built in the States.

But President Bush is so eager to have the machines available on schedule in 2009, shortly before he leaves the White House, that the US Marine Corps has decided speed is of the essence and has moved most of the initial build to the UK.

Of the first batch of eight helicopters - they are dubbed the flying Oval Office - seven are to be constructed at Yeovil. Bell, which has built a production facility to manage the programme in Amarillo, Texas, is now set to make just one of the initial batch before taking on a greater share of the later deliveries.

Westland claims that Bush has said: 'I want to see one of those new machines on the White House lawn before I leave office.'

The first test machines must fly in early 2007 for the production models to be ready for the President's final days in office two years later. The choice of Westland for overseeing the finish and for quality control has been an unexpected boost for the manufacturer's West Country division, which last year cut its Yeovil workforce because of a six-month delay to a Ministry of Defence contract for light helicopters.

The company is now known as AgustaWestland after becoming fully controlled by Italian defence contractor Finmeccanica, which bought out engineering group GKN's half share of the business.

Having landed the current production of the Presidential helicopter, which is based on the successful EH101 Merlin, Agusta-Westland feels it is now well-placed to win the contract for 146 rescue and reconnaissance helicopters for the US Marines and Special Forces, which would bring more work to Yeovil.

If the AgustaWestland, Bell, Lockheed and Northrop consortium bidding for that deal wins against a rival team of Sikorsky and Boeing that is offering an updated Ch-47 Chinook, it could be the beginning of the end for the revolutionary twin-rotor helicopter that has been a military workhorse since the Vietnam war.