Photos: White House gets $6M helipad funded by Lockheed Martin to protect lawn from Marine One

Trump previously said the White House would receive the 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.

The newer helicopters from Sikorsky are about "two and a half times more powerful than the old ones," Trump said.

The helipad bears the White House seal and 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."

Photos have shown the helipad being built amid other massive construction projects the administration is undertaking to transform the White House in line with Trump's vision.

During construction, Marine One relied on 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 results 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 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.

The first documented instance of Eisenhower boarding a helicopter from the South Lawn was on July 12, 1957, according to The History Channel.