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The White House South Lawn is under construction to accommodate a permanent presidential helipad for Marine One landings.Al Drago/The Washington Post via Getty Images
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The White House is getting a permanent helipad installed on the South Lawn.
2026-08-04
President Donald Trump confirmed to reporters in the Oval Office on July 6 that the White House is getting a granite helipad paid for by Sikorsky Aircraft — a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin — to support the new fleet of helicopters used as Marine One.
A Lockheed Martin spokesperson confirmed the contribution and told Business Insider it was being made to the National Park Service.
Trump said the permanent fixture will help protect the South Lawn's grass.
The newer helicopters from Sikorsky are about "two and a half times more powerful than the old ones," Trump said.
"When you land on the grass, it's not that the grass gets discolored. It gets ripped out," he said.
Trump told reporters that the helipad will bear the White House seal and that Sikorsky will pay for the project. The president said the helipad will cost between $5 million and $6 million.
"Sikorsky is paying for it. You know why? Because they didn't tell us how powerful these helicopters were," Trump said. "And they felt a little bit guilty."
A Sikorsky spokesperson said that the new model for presidential transport — the VH-92A Patriot — delivers "increased performance and reduced maintenance costs and time over the current fleet of presidential helicopters."
Spokespeople for Sikorsky and Lockheed did not say how much the project would cost or how long construction would take.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Recent photos show the White House helipad project is still under construction. Trump ordered contractors to redo portions of the work, and crews have dismantled parts of the site, including a nearly 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal, as they rework the landing pad, the Washington Post reported.
While construction continues, Marine One is temporarily using the Ellipse, the park south of the White House, as its landing zone.
Below are photos tracing the history of presidential helicopter landings at the White House and the construction of the new helipad.
Aviation pioneer James Ray landed an autogyro, an aircraft with a spinning rotor on top, on the White House South Lawn for the first time in 1931.
James Ray landing an autogyro aircraft on the White House South Lawn.Library of Congress/Interim Archives/Getty Images
James Ray parked a Pitcairn-Cierva PCA-2 autogyro on the South Lawn as part of an award ceremony, according to the National Air and Space Museum. It was the first recorded instance of a rotary-wing aircraft landing on the lawn.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first US president to use helicopter transport from the White House lawn.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is about to board a helicopter from the White House South Lawn.Universal History Archive/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The first documented instance of Eisenhower boarding a helicopter from the South Lawn was on July 12, 1957, according to The History Channel.
The Marine Corps website states that helicopter transport helped turn a two-hour motorcade into a seven-minute helicopter ride.
Helicopter transport for the US president to and from the White House South Lawn later became standard operating procedure for short-distance travel.
President Richard Nixon gives his iconic "V" sign as he departs from the White House South Lawn after resigning the presidency.Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
The White House helicopter transport was named Marine One, a call sign for a Marine Corps aircraft carrying the president.
The fleet is operated by Marine Helicopter Squadron One, known as HMX-1 or the Nighthawks.
Marine One has become one of the most visible symbols of presidential travel, next to Air Force One.
Instead of a permanent helipad, White House personnel would place large landing disks on the South Lawn for Marine One helicopters.
White House personnel place landing targets on the South Lawn of the White HouseNicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
The landing targets provide the aircraft with a stable contact point and could reduce turf damage.
The South Lawn is no match for the new Sikorsky aircraft.
Sikorsky VH-92A Patriot replaced the older fleet of helicopters for Marine One.Craig Hudson/Reuters
In 2024, Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky formally delivered the VH-92A helicopter to the US Marine Corps to replace the older fleet of aircraft used for Marine One.
The government spent $5 billion on the new fleet.
Bloomberg previously reported in 2024 that issues with the VH-92A scorching the South Lawn have delayed the aircraft's ability to transport the president.
Trump says construction of the presidential helipad is underway.
A helipad is under construction on the White House South LawnWin McNamee/Getty Images
Photos show that the grass on the South Lawn has been removed to make way for the construction of the permanent granite helipad.
"For 50 years, we've been landing helicopters on grass," Trump told reporters in July. "The grass is wet, soggy."
The helipad design features a 100-foot-wide presidential seal.
The helipad construction is happening rapidly.AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
A massive granite presidential seal was set to be the centerpiece of Trump's helipad project.
The nearly 100-foot-wide design was taking shape on the South Lawn, intended to be embedded into the helipad surface, marking a highly visible presidential emblem at the heart of the landing zone.
The most eye-catching part of the White House helipad project is already being torn apart.
The helipad design features a 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal.AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
In early August, contractors were photographed removing the roughly 100-foot-wide granite presidential seal.
According to reporting by the Washington Post, the redesign came after Trump questioned the helipad's appearance and the South Lawn's slope.
It's unclear how much the revisions will add to the project's price tag.
Trump has repurposed the Ellipse until the helipad construction is completed
The Ellipse is a park with a large lawn south of the White House.AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
While construction continues on the White House's new helipad, Trump has temporarily shifted Marine One operations to the Ellipse, a park south of the White House.
The Washington Post reported that Trump has pushed to have the helipad finished before China's leader, Xi Jinping, is expected to visit later in September.
The helipad is only one of the construction projects the White House is going through under Trump 2.0.
A helipad is under construction on the White House South LawnKevin Carter/Getty Images
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Katherine Li is a reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers career, the AI startup culture, and how AI is affecting economic sentiments.Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters for Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at katherineli@insider.com and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social. Expertise
