Since his first administration, Donald Trump has obsessed over replacing Air Force One. However, delays with the contracted Boeing have pushed delivery back by another decade. Now, Trump’s impatience is showing as he’s commissioned an interim plane from another contractor on top of the existing multi-billion contract with Boeing.
In 2018, Trump commissioned Boeing, which has supplied presidential planes since Roosevelt, to replace Air Force One for $3.9 billion. Currently, a thirty-five-year-old duo of modified Boeing 747-200s (or VC-25A) make up Air Force One. Boeing failed to meet its original Dec. 2024 deadline for the first aircraft due to delays caused by supply and design issues, workforce complications, and more.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing told federal officials around election time that they couldn’t deliver until about 2035. So, Trump took matters into his own hands. According to the outlet, Trump has commissioned L3Harris, a Florida-based defense contractor, to modify a plane previously used by the Qatari government. (Ironically, the interim jet is a Boeing 747.)
This is reportedly the same plane that Trump toured in February in a weird public shaming of Boeing. He wasn’t subtle about it, either. At the time, Steven Cheung, the White House Communications director, said the tour was to “highlight the project’s failure to deliver a new Air Force One on time.” Trump also said, “No, I’m not happy with Boeing…We may do something else. We may go buy a plane.”
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump wants the interim plane available as early as the fall. Air Force One isn’t your typical plane, though. As PopSci outlined, it has an advanced navigation system, encryption capabilities, defensive countermeasures, and more. It’s unlikely that L3Harris can supply an equivalent to the existing duo that fast. Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s acquisitions chief under Biden, told the Wall Street Journal, “You could do some paint, you could do some communications upgrades, and I suspect it would be hard to do too much beyond that on that timeline.”
Years before Trump first took office, the Air Force selected the Boeing 747-8 as the next presidential plane. Under the existing contract, Boeing is supposed to supply two 747-8s. Per the Wall Street Journal, senior officials debated cancelling Boeing’s contract before Trump’s inauguration. Since then, there have also been discussions about a potential lawsuit.
Trump did something worse than sue, though. Immediately after his election, he sic’d Elon Musk on Boeing. In February, CEO Kelly Ortberg said that Musk was helping remove constraints to speed things up. However, Musk also considered questionable measures like lowering security clearances for workers, which isn’t ideal for the president’s plane.
It’s unknown how much Trump’s second-hand plane will cost. However, Boeing is already billions of dollars over budget. But ostentatious displays are a key part of Trump’s presidency. And who knows. Maybe this time, Trump can pick the paint.
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