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Following years of delays, billions of dollars, and his return to the presidency, Donald Trump is set to fly on the new Air Force One after all.
The existing presidential jets — a military version of the Boeing 747-200 known as the VC-25A — are more than 30 years old. In 2015, the Air Force again chose Boeing to build two new planes, this time based on the larger 747-8. The VC-25B project is known as the "Next Air Force One."
After Trump was elected in 2016, he said the deal with Boeing didn't pass muster over fears about escalating costs.
He met with then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg and threatened to cancel the program if it exceeded $4 billion, sources told Defense One. To cut costs, Boeing agreed in 2018 to use two jets originally destined for a Russian airline that went bankrupt. The contract announced at the time was worth $3.9 billion.
Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2016
Trump showed his red, white, and blue design for the plane to ABC in 2019. "I'm doing that for other presidents, not for me," he said.
He appeared enthusiastic: After all, Trump has his own Boeing 757 and once ran a short-lived airline called Trump Shuttle.
At first, the Next Air Force One was supposed to be delivered in 2024. So, if Trump was re-elected in 2020, he could have theoretically been on board the jet before the end of his presidency.
However, delays piled up, and the timeframe was pushed back to 2027.
It looked like Trump had little chance of flying on the new planes.
Yet Trump's victory in 2024 means he's now set to witness his deal come to fruition, particularly as Boeing continues to contend with production delays.
"Our team is fighting through a very, very challenging program - two very complex airplanes," Boeing's then-head of space and defense told Reuters in June of the project.
It will look different from his original plans, though.
Last year, President Joe Biden selected a new light-blue color palette similar to every previous presidential jet since the Kennedy era.
The red, white, and blue livery would have caused more delays. The Air Force said a thermal study found that the dark blue would necessitate additional tests due to the added heat in some environments.
Courtesy of the Air Force
While the government is paying $3.9 billion for the new jets, Boeing has suffered from the Next Air Force One.
In a 2022 earnings call, then-CEO Dave Calhoun called it "a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn't have taken."
That came after the company disclosed losses of $660 million. Boeing has since lost more than $2 billion in building the VC-25B.
Last year, it announced a charge of $482 million due to engineering changes. In the second quarter of this year, it increased that by $250 million due to further changes related to wiring and other structural requirements.
"Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods," Boeing said in its latest earnings report.
In 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that production problems included trying to place one of the jets onto a jack that wasn't designed to hold that much weight.
The report added that one Boeing employee wasn't properly credentialed to oversee the work, and another failed a routine drug test.
Mini bottles of tequila were also found on board one of the future presidential jets, The Journal reported.
The current Air Force One is an extraordinary aircraft. It has 4,000 square feet of floor space on three levels, can feed 100 people at a time, and has a medical suite with a doctor on board at all times.
The plane can refuel in midair for unlimited flying, and onboard electronics are designed to withstand an electromagnetic pulse. In the event of an attack on the United States, it can function as a mobile command center.
The Next Air Force One will be more modern and even bigger. At 250 feet and 2 inches long, the 747-8 is the longest airliner in the world.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
