The Wall Street Journal announced yesterday that the next fleet of “Marine One” presidential helicopters will be assembled in Coatesville.

The $1.24 Billion dollar US Navy contract calls for the Sikorsky Aircraft, a world leader in helicopter design, manufacture, and service and the company who operates Sikorsky Global Helicopters west of Coatesville, to “modify, test and deliver six S-92 presidential helicopters and two trainer simulators to the U.S. Marine Corps.”

The company estimates the contract will eventually expand to include manufacturing and delivery of 21 helicopters by 2023.

While manufacturing of the helicopter will take place in Connecticut, according to the article, “assembly will be in Coatesville, Pennsylvania.”

According to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn), who led the initiative in Congress to steer the contract toward Sikorsky, “every president since Eisenhower has flown in a Sikorsky” built helicopter.

The win is a bid deal for Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a division of Connecticut based United Technologies, Inc.  According to the Daily Local News, the company laid off 200 people, or 1% of its workforce, last Fall in the face of declining revenue as the nation’s two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wind down.

The entire Wall Street Journal article here.