On July 4 this year, President Trump is planning some sort of formation flight over Washington, DC led by Air Force One, which I suppose could pass for excitement if you live in Washington, DC. But this being America’s big 250th birthday party, this will be the new Air Force One, which was just presented on friday.
In some of his frequently quoted comments about this aircraft, Trump has said“This is considered the most luxurious plane in the world.” And he has claimed that part of the reason for accelerating this long-stalled project was that heads of state in other countries “have a plane that is much newer and much better.”
So what exactly is this plane “better” at? Alternatively, does this plane, in fact, worse?
This will be an article about an airplane, its characteristics and its attributes. But this plane, the one that the nation of Qatar supposedly gave to the US military, turns out to be a touchy subject, so at first let me try to dispense with the biggest difference between this one and the last one, the controversy:
This plane is controversial, but the issue may last (relatively) for a short time
Experts have argued many times that the means by which this plane passed from Qatar to the United States it was unconstitutional because it allegedly violates the emoluments clause. Experts also seem to expect that, in any case, There will never be an attempt to litigate this or punish Trump.. The counterargument that the president has offered is essentially that The Pentagon can accept a gift plane from Qatar without dirtying the president’s hands.. AND It looks like CNN‘is reporting that the plane was less of an unsolicited gift and more like Trump saying, “Could I please have your plane as a gift?” Whether or not all of this is okay with you probably depends on whether or not you agree with this president in general.
But whatever your feelings about their methods, this is happening in large part because of the mess surrounding Boeing’s Air Force One upgrade program: the switch from the old VC-25A to the theoretically new VC-25B. The basic contours of the VC-25B program became public during Barack Obama’s first term, and even then, Aviation Bloggers Mocked what the new Air Force One should look like.
Those mockups were basically correct. The VC-25B would be, as predicted, the military version of the Boeing 747-8 (the 747-8Yoto be precise), but Boeing has been surprisingly slow in modifying and delivering the 747-8is. These delays, in addition to increased costs, He had been frustrating Trump since the early days of his first term.. In 2018, Renegotiated the national Air Force One agreement with Boeingwith delivery scheduled for 2024 and price quoted at $3.9 billion. At the beginning of Trump 2.0, there were still no new Air Force One. Meanwhile, Qatar was in possession of a 747-8i modified to transport dignitaries, and the rest is history.
on your own statement Regarding this Air Force One “bridge program,” the Air Force says the current planes require such lengthy maintenance that an “interim capability became an absolute imperative,” and that it expects delivery of Boeing’s VC-25Bs in 2028. In other words, the president plans to use this modified plane, gifted by Qatar, as Air Force One for about two years.
The new Air Force One cannot refuel in the air
As explained in a long post by Luke Diaz of the Simple Flying aviation blogThe soon-to-be-retired Air Force One planes have the ability to refuel in the air. When the President of the United States is supposed to be the person holding the world together in the event of some kind of apocalyptic scenario, it’s comforting to be able to keep this person in the sky indefinitely so as not to expose them to attacks or dangers at ground level.
In practice, Díaz says, refueling in the air is a nuisance and causes an upset stomach for pilots. The only time a president was rumored to have been on Air Force One when it refueled midair was in a George W. Bush’s exceptionally long and secret trip to Iraq in 2003.
But this is not an exclusive limitation of the plane provided by Qatar. The decision to avoid air refueling came all the way in 2017and will apply to the other Air Force One aircraft when they are delivered.
The new Air Force One, provided by Qatar, may have degraded its defensive capabilities
Aircraft designated as Air Force One have classified defense systems, but the basics are public knowledge—particularly defensive tools bolted directly to the outside of the plane. You cannot photograph, for example, the plane’s shielding against electromagnetic pulses caused by nuclear detonations, but anyone with knowledge of the relevant hardware can assume that the old Air Force One planes have jammers for incoming missiles and countermeasures to disrupt missile guidance.
Defense blog War Zone has been keeping an eye on what can be discerned about the new Air Force One’s defenses, but they haven’t seen much. “At the very least, this plane have to feature some type of DIRCM configuration to repel shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles, and there are modular units available that can be attached in a canoe to the underside of the aircraft.” they wrote in April. Then last month, after this new plane was photographed performing test flights, they wrote“We do not yet see any evidence that the aircraft has been modified with defensive countermeasures.”
single flight He also seems confident. that the new aircraft is not protected against electromagnetic pulses and that it lacks certain anti-missile countermeasures.
The new Air Force One still has the same luxurious interior as when it was Qatari possession
When the plane initially changed hands, aviation bloggers gawped at old photos of what it (presumably) looked like inside, and apparently distressed that everything would have to be stripped away and made more austere. AeroTime wrote that “One of the most important jobs here will be the installation of a multi-layer hardened communications system, which is not exactly plug-and-play,” adding that “such installations require shielded cabling routed through the fuselage, dedicated server racks, data centers and encryption modules, as well as custom antenna arrays in the fuselage and tail.”
It’s unclear how much of that actually happened. He The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the renovations focused on “top-secret communications equipment that would allow the commander in chief to rule the country from the skies.” However, the actual changes involved in making this happen were minimal. Changes that will be visible include the translation of exit signs from Arabic to English and the removal of “contemporary works of art.” The leather chairs and sofas of the Qatari royal family (presumably the ones seen in this photowhich also features “contemporary works of art”) supposedly stayed.
Air Force Gen. Dale White told the Journal, “Overall, the aircraft we’re getting is in the same condition from an internal perspective.”
it’s painted different
The paint job has more red and some gold. What did you expect?
