Trump Considers Buying Used Planes to Serve as Air Force One Amid Boeing
President Donald Trump is considering buying used Boeing aircraft possibly from an overseas seller to use as Air Force One when he’s aboard, as he fumes over the U.S. plane-maker’s delays in producing two specially modified ones for presidential use.
The U.S. President stated that he is considering one of the two nearly 35-year-old Boeing 747-200 aircraft which can serve as alternatives because Boeing is taking too long.
He stated, “We may go and buy a plane,” Trump said, adding that he could then “convert it.” He later clarified that he was ruling out purchasing aircraft of Airbus, the European company that is the only other global supplier on large wide-body aircraft, but would consider a second-hand Boeing plane.
Boeing has the contract to produce updated versions, based on the more modern Boeing 747-8, but delivery has been delayed while the aircraft maker has lost billions of dollars on the deal, which was negotiated by Trump during his first term in office.
It’s not the planes, rather the heavy modification to make them suitable for the requirements of presidential travel and the top-level security clearances required for those involved, that has added to the cost and delays. Trump already dropped a requirement for the new generation of planes, which will be known as the VC-25B, to be capable of air-to-air refuelling, like the pair of existing VC-25As, which were designed during the Cold War. Delivery initially was set for 2024, but has been pushed to some time in 2027 for the first plane and in 2028 — Trump’s final year in office — for the second, according to the U.S. Air Force.
