The US Air Force is aiming to put the Boeing 747 aircraft donated by Qatar into Air Force One before National Day July 4, when this country prepares for its 250th anniversary.
A US official said on May 6 (US time) that the White House had received a luxury aircraft from Qatar in 2025 and requested rapid upgrades to presidential jet standards.
L3Harris Company was assigned to carry out the renovation process. According to sources, there was a plan to hand over it about three weeks earlier to coincide with President Donald Trump's birthday on June 14. The US Air Force said that the aircraft has completed technical repairs, flight tests and is currently being repainted before handover this summer.
The Boeing 747 is 13 years old, valued at about 400 million USD. Qatar's donation of aircraft to the US has faced criticism from the Democratic Party and government monitoring organizations, with concerns that this could be a conflict of interest affecting the President's decisions. Mr. Trump rejected the criticisms and said it would be "stupid" to refuse this gift.
Experts say that aircraft modification requires many strict security upgrades, including anti-audition communication systems and missile defense capabilities. Currently, Air Force One squadron is using two improved Boeing 747-200B aircraft. All US Air Force aircraft carrying the president are called Air Force One.
Meanwhile, the official program to replace Air Force One with 2 new Boeing 747-8s is about 4 years behind schedule. The 3.9 billion USD project signed in 2018 is currently expected to be handed over in mid-2028, raising the risk that Mr. Trump will not have time to use the new aircraft before ending his term in January 2029.
Program costs have increased by more than 5 billion USD, causing Boeing to suffer a loss of 2.4 billion USD. To improve progress, Boeing appointed Mr. Steve Sullivan, a former leader involved in the B-21 bomber program, to be in charge of the project.
The US Air Force also announced a new color scheme for the specialized aircraft squadron including red, white, dark blue and yellow, in the style that Mr. Trump once promoted. This design will be applied to the VC-25B series, the military designation of the Boeing 747-8, instead of the blue and white paint used since President Kennedy's time.
At the end of last year, the US Air Force bought 2 Boeing 747-8i aircraft that once belonged to Lufthansa for 400 million USD to serve training and supply spare parts when the current squadron stopped operating.
