A new presidential transport aircraft may make its debut as early as next year.
ABC News reported this week that the U.S. government has accepted the “unconditional donation” of a Boeing 747-8i belonging to the Qatari royal family.
Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he could start flying on the aircraft in February. The current aircraft used to transport the president, specifically the Boeing VC-25A, a modified Boeing 747-200B, are roughly 35 years old.
In 2018, Boeing was awarded the contract to design a new Air Force One with two 747-8i airframes. However, this program has been riddled with delays.
“I think by February, maybe…much sooner than the others,” Trump said, referring to the aircraft under Boeing’s control. “The others are being built…a long time build…They are not normal 747s. They have a lot of things on them that another plane wouldn’t have. But we’ll get this one a year and a half or two years earlier.”
Trump continued to tell reporters that he didn’t know how much the retrofits would cost. L3Harris is expected to complete the work.
The U.S. government and Qatar have been in the process of finalizing a deal for Qatar to donate a Boeing 747-8 aircraft to the U.S. Air Force. Trump has publicly stated that accepting this plane as a “contribution” to the Department of Defense is a “very nice gesture” and a way to save taxpayer money, noting that the existing Air Force One planes are older.
The process of converting the Qatari 747 into a suitable presidential aircraft is expected to incur significant costs, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. These renovations would include installing secure communication systems, missile defenses, aerial refueling capabilities, and protection against electromagnetic pulse attacks, along with clearing the plane of any potential surveillance hardware.
