New granite helipad built at White House to fix Marine One exhaust damage

President Donald Trump showed reporters a partly completed granite helicopter landing pad on the White House South Lawn on August 19, 2026, signing one of the stone slabs during the visit.

The pad addresses a long-standing problem with the Sikorsky VH-92A Patriot, the helicopter purchased by the US Navy to eventually take over the Marine One transport mission. According to the US Government Accountability Office, the aircraft has never met a requirement that it land without damaging the surface beneath it. The watchdog first flagged the issue in April 2018 and continued tracking it in later reviews.

A 2020 GAO assessment described a September 2018 training event in which the VH-92A's exhaust damaged a landing zone. Program officials told investigators the incident did not reflect typical use, since the lawn had been exposed to exhaust longer than usual. The GAO said the Navy was studying three possible remedies: procedural changes, modifications to the helicopter, and treatments to the landing surface itself. Sikorsky tested a prototype exhaust deflector for the aircraft's auxiliary power unit in March 2020.

The VH-92A, built on the commercial S-92A airframe, flies alongside the older VH-3D Sea King and VH-60N White Hawk helicopters operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One. The Navy bought 23 airframes in total, including two development models, and the Marine Corps declared the type operationally capable in December 2021. A Pentagon test office rated it effective and suitable in a January 2023 report.

Despite that timeline, South Lawn landings and takeoffs have continued to rely on the legacy helicopters rather than the VH-92A, pending resolution of the surface-damage issue.