Various reports suggest L3Harris is already at work adding gear to an ex-Qatari Royal Family Boeing 747-8 that President Donald Trump plans to use instead of the heavily modified VC-25s currently used as Air Force One. The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC say their sources have confirmed that the lavishly appointed 12-year-old aircraft is being modified somewhere in Texas. Trump has complained about having to use the current aircraft, converted 747-200s that went into service in 1990 and was behind a deal with Boeing to get replacements during his first presidency. Those planes, based on Boeing 747-8is, were supposed to be finished last year but latest reports say they might still be 10 years away.
The Vatican typically charters from the Italian flag carrier, ITA Airways.
Flying in the modifed ex-Qatari Royal Family Boeing 747-8 will be quite the adjustment for the humble new Pope, after the smoke finally clears from the past one.
I’m certain American taxpayers will be thrilled to fund this new papal transport as they search the aisles for toilet paper. He is, after all, the Chosen One.
And aren’t popes given lifetime positions until death? No need to schedule anything but tee times…
So get crackin, people, he wants to start using the refurbished plane by this coming fall!
Just 12 years old. So it will not be the same 747 which hung around various airports giving happy interior fitters in Europe work for for years and years, (1995-2005?) without actually ever going anywhere… Property of a prince.
Hate to say it, but the man might be on to something. These days I am sure the button is an app on his iPhone (made in China), rather than a silver briefcase with plug sockets in it, which could only be carried by colonels and higher, and which needed a radio set the size of a desk.
So as long as he can find a signal…
Let us hope that the modifications include being able to use SAF.
Who knows, stranger things have happened.
“Those planes, based on Boeing 747-8is, were supposed to be finished last year but latest reports say they might still be 10 years away”
Missing a delivery date by 10 years?
Honestly I’m sorta glad that POTUS is going back to earlier days when just grabbing an existing plane was the norm.
Probably a conflict of interest (billing for one), then there is a question of can a private plane be commissioned into the air force as AF1, and then there is the need to have the USA brand on the side of the plane, etc, etc.
Personally, if I was President, I think it would be great to hitch a ride in the back seat of the latest two seat F-15 if I had to travel by air. Oh heck yea.
I like what you bring to us, and I know it’s hard to keep one’s own opinions out of the words we produce, but I’ve got to say - it looks like you worked to use words to make the current US president look bad.
Still glad you wrote the article! Keep up the good work. But maybe tone it down just a little please.
