If you look at the upcoming fleet of E-4B’s (Doomsday planes) you’ll see that they’re all 747-8’s from Korean Air.
Why would anyone make fun of his appearance? He is the most gifted at applying the orange spackle. Zoom in on this picture to see how expertly he colors within the lines. No one has ever done better. People come up to him and say “SIR! Your oranging is better than I have ever seen!”
The whole world laughs at him.
If he ever finds out how hard and how universal is the laughter: look out. (He has the nuclear codes.)
Has the plane just been sitting around for the past couple of years? Has anyone been using it? Does it still fly?
AFAIH, the aircraft has been on the market for half a decade. That doesn’t say anything about its airworthiness, but I assume that the Qataris kept it maintained and ran the engines periodically to keep it in flying condition. That’s why such things are money pits. (Trump’s own 757 is a money pit, which needed a lot of maintenance to get it airworthy again.)
Yes, I recall reading somewhere (no cite beyond my erratic memory) that the plane had been sucking up lots of maintenance costs while it languished on the market. No wonder the Qataris were thrilled to have finally found a sucker to take it off their hands.
A sucker who doesn’t seem to be aware* that by the time it’s converted to an AF1 (which will most likely stripping it down to the airframe and installing everything from scratch, plus new engines, expanded fuel capacity &c&c&c), Boeing will most likely have delivered one or both of the “real” AF1s. He was probably entranced by the “flying palace” interior, which will be gone.
* Yes, I know that I could have stopped right here.
I’m hesitant to post anything here because I tend to read/lurk rather than post on any site even remotely related to social media, but this is IMHO a very good and eye opening article (originally published in the NYT) about the whole affair. It’s paywall-free from a site which I’ve safely used for a year or more.
I’m rather taken by the idea that, at the end of his term, Boeing get to deliver a stripped-down airframe for display at the 45/47 Presidential library. Sort of an emblematic thing.
Press reports say it was in Florida in February and now is in San Antonio.
If the current Air Force Ones become too old to fly safely prior to the new ones under contruction being completed, the President could used the same plane as the Secretary of State or Defense – or any military transport.
There’s a similar issue with the presidential helicopters being old, and with replacements extremely expensive and behind schedule:
I would say that the President should instead drive to the airport, except that they would then stop traffic.
If the Democrats ever get back in, they should end all this business of treating the President like an emperor.
The Pentagon has accepted the aircraft.
Here are things I don’t understand:
What is the benefit of this plane when by the time it is fixed up the new planes from Boing will likely be ready?
Do they not understand the millions of dollars it will take to get it appropriate to serve as AF1?
If it is a gift accepted by the Air Force then why is Trump getting it after he leaves office? Can the military just gift a multimillion dollar piece of equipment to a former president? Would he have been able to take the current AF1 after the new planes arrived?
Does Trump realize that Qatar has been trying to unload this aircraft because of the astronomical fee for upkeep? ( Although I do relish the thought of all the Trump supporters donating money to his “library” that will essentially be going to maintain his private plane).
It’s gooooooold! Trump does not understand what it means to be the Commander in Chief, so he has no understanding of what VC-25 is. He thinks it’s just a limousine in the sky. So, something slightly bigger, a bit newer, and much more luxurious is all he cares about.
I’d certainly settle for their figuring out that maybe we can just move him or her around at the same VIP standard as every other damn major Head of State/Government in the West.
Also never mind the Presidential gear, let’s see them admit to themselves that the US military version of any helicopter, command jet, icebreaker, frigate, screwdriver, etc. so often takes decades and billions past projection for a new model to come on line only to then perform short of expected specs, because they and their GOP colleagues agree on that they have to first give love and care to all the subcontractors in all their districts.
That, too. Which also goes with his petty-as-always thing about getting rid of the traditional livery and making it look more airlinerish.
To be fair, I suspect he has rather more enemies that “every other damn major Head of State/Government in the West”—combined.
Edited: without annoying spaces, quotation marks formatted this as italics. Trying curly quotes.
About that
And that the hypothetical guy pulling the trigger is most likely to be one of his own citizens.
>DING-DING! 
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Sorry, questions disqualified on the basis that logic, reason, and common sense have NO place in this discussion.
You answered your own question.
It’s not about serving as AF1. It’s about getting a shiny object for himself, should he decide to leave office.
He’s not going to wait. He will wait as long as it takes for them to repaint it and then he will start flying around in it. Remember, he wanted the metal detectors taken away on Jan 6th because “they aren’t here to hurt me”. He absolutely does not care about information security and he probably thinks this jet is fast enough to outrun any missiles that might be shot at it.