The order affects Phase 1 and Phase 2. Schumer’s proposing to include Phase 1 in the House and Senate budgets.

“We haven’t gotten any commitments, but we are getting an understanding that cutting it completely makes no sense from a fiscal point of view,” said Schumer.

5 helicopters in Phase 1 are already built. Schumer says safer helicopters are needed because the President’s current one is 30 years old.

Attorneys hired by National Bank of Indianapolis filed the lawsuit in Marion Superior Court last week on behalf of Pearson’s two children, Gabrielle, 8, and Garrett, 10.

“These helicopter crashes have real human life consequences,” said Gary Robb, a Kansas City, Mo., attorney representing the plaintiffs. “I’m going to make sure these children do not have any kind of financial hardship over the death of their mother.”

Jefferson County Justice of the Peace identified three victims, whose bodies were recovered the day of the accident, as: the pilot, 43-year-old Joseph Laugelle Jr. of Quincy, Mass.; 23-year-old James Cody Smalts of Huntsville; and 51-year-old John Larry Conn of Katy.

The body of 26-year-old Jacob Matt of Jennings, La., was discovered Dec. 15 by volunteers patrolling a beach at the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge.

The Sikorsky S-76C, carrying a pilot, co-pilot and seven workers bound for a Shell Oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, crashed about 2:10 p.m. Sunday in a marshy area of western Terrebonne Parish near Bayou Penchant, authorities said.

Boudreaux, who lived with his mother in Ama, was one of five men working for New Iberia-based Dynamic Industries who were headed to the platform aboard the helicopter. Three of his co-workers, Ezequiel Cantu, 35, Andrew Moricio, 30, both of Morgan City and Randy Tarpley, 53, of Jonesville, died in the crash.

Two other passengers killed, Jorey Rivero, 35, of Bridge City and Charles W. Nelson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., worked for MMR Offshore Services, headquartered in Baton Rouge, officials said.

Pilot Thomas Ballenger, 63, of Eufaula, Ala., and co-pilot Vyral Martin, 46, of Hurst, Texas, were also killed.

In a sky-high drama construction workers on Saturday installed the underpinnings for the spire atop Donald Trump’s Chicago skyscraper, which ranks as America’s second-tallest building after Sears Tower.

Sikorsky S-61 helicopter dangled three-legged steel sections of the spire over the tower’s roof. Ironworkers aligned the sections, then bolted them into place, despite the blasts of cold air from the winds and the helicopter’s clattering blades.

As the spectacle unfolded more than 1,300 feet above the sidewalk, with the chopper levitating near such landmarks as the Wrigley Building, pedestrians on Michigan Avenue stopped in their tracks and recorded the sight with a variety of devices–cell phone cameras, camcorders and conventional cameras.

After the helicopter lowered the fifth section of the spire into place, an iron worker clad in a red jacket climbed to the top of the section and disengaged the cable to which the steel piece had been attached. Seen through binoculars, he resembled a fly. “That’s the lead dog pulling the sled,” said one onlooker on the construction team.

The Army will deliver a surplus helicopter to the Helicopter Unit at 4601 Eastern. The Special Operations helicopter from Fort Campbell, will beef KCPD’s helicopter fleet up to four choppers. The 1972 helicopter has a better engine than those currently in KCPD’s fleet and is valued at about $200,000. The Army is giving it to the police department at no cost. A similar new helicopter without police equipment would cost about $1.5 million, said Captain Pat Grove, commander of the Patrol Support Unit.

Like the one they will receive Tuesday, KCPD’s helicopters all are from the Vietnam War era. But the new helicopter features an upgraded engine with more power and the ability to be rebuilt, which will save the department a significant amount of money. The existing helicopters have engines that have to be completely replaced after 1,000 hours of flight time.

According to deputy air force spokesman, the plan crashed when it was landing at the station.

A thorough investigation would be done to see whether heavy rain and wind at the time were the cause of the crash.

Helicopter development is hampered by the fact that for so long it has been a zero sum game, with designers only able to improve forward speed at the expense of hovering ability and low speed control, and vice versa. This, combined with other inherent design restrictions, has kept the top cruise speed for conventional helicopters at roughly 150—170 knots. Looking to overcome these limitations, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. is working on a coaxial design aimed at realizing a cruising speed of 250 knots. First announced in 2005 and having recently achieved a major ground-testing milestone, the X2 is a scalable technology demonstrator that can hover, land vertically, manoeuvre at low speeds, and transition seamlessly from hovering to forward flight. In the words of Sikorsky’s president, Jeffrey Pino, it could prove to be a real ‘game changer’ for the industry.

Coaxial helicopters incorporate a second rotor above the body of the aircraft, eliminating the angular momentum and dissymmetry of lift caused by having only one rotor. This allows the helicopter to achieve faster speeds with greater efficiency, and without having to compromise hovering ability. Sikorsky is very optimistic about the technology’s scalability, claiming it can be effectively used on anything from Class IV UAVs to high-speed joint heavy lift transports with a 25-ton internal load.

Both rotors on the X2 Technology Demonstrator have four blades, and are powered by a LHTEC T800 turboshaft, which also drives a six-bladed pusher propeller on the rear of the model. The craft is expected to travel as fast as 256 knots, has a range of 1300km and a take-off weight of 3600kg.

The X2 demonstrator will incorporate new rotor blade designs with high lift-to-drag ratio, a fly-by-wire system with advanced flight control laws, transmissions with greater horsepower to weight performance, and active vibration control. The X2 also contains an automatic system that strops the rotor blades from exceeding the speed of sound and shattering from the airflow – a necessary precaution for a helicopter traveling faster than 210 knots.

The recent blades-on ground testing milestone brought the craft within “arm’s reach” of its maiden voyage. “The entire X2 TECHNOLOGY Demonstrator Program Team is extremely pleased that we continue to move our experimental program closer and closer to first flight,” said James Kagdis, Program Manager, Advanced Programs. ”We anticipate that reaching this particular milestone, as with those yet to come, will continue to pique the interest of our military, commercial and international customers regarding the potential that X2 TECHNOLOGY could have on their diverse missions around the globe.”

The proof of concept technology demonstrator is scheduled to fly later this year.

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