[WASHINGTON] A top US Air Force official said Boeing is proposing to deliver its new version of Air Force One by 2027 as officials look to satisfy US President Donald Trump’s demand for the updated presidential jetliner before the end of his second term.
While Boeing aims to deliver the aircraft on the accelerated timeline, “I would not necessarily guarantee that date,” Darlene Costello, the Air Force’s acting acquisitions chief, told a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Wednesday (May 7).
The Air Force is working with partners in the government and commercial sector as part of the process, Costello and Lieutenant General David Tabor, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programmes, said in a joint prepared statement.
“We are looking at the requirements that are being potentially traded off to get to that date,” Costello said. The Air Force is working with the White House on “what is acceptable”, she said.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company would defer to the Air Force. But Kelly Ortberg, the aircraft manufacturer’s chief executive officer, has touted progress being made behind the scenes in advancing the chronically delayed programme, with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency contributing to the effort.
“We continue to work with the customer to revise the programme plan to allow for an earlier first delivery while maintaining our focus on safety and quality,” Ortberg said in an Apr 23 earnings call.”
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Boeing has made a “significant improvement”, winnowing its timeline for delivering the first of the presidential aircraft by one to two years from the schedule it presented to Pentagon officials a few months ago, Costello said. But the White House and Air Force first have to study and agree to the trade-offs the company is proposing, she said without elaborating on the changes.
The Air Force and Boeing are working through delays caused by workforce limitations, problems with interior suppliers and the completion of wiring design, the service officials said.
During his first term as president, Trump directed the Pentagon to plunk down US$3.9 billion for a pair of Boeing 747-8s to serve as the next generation of Air Force One. Now, Trump might be lucky to board the new plane before he leaves office. Yet getting the jumbo jets – dubbed VC-25B – into service is a priority for the president.
In an April executive order directing a review of major weapons systems, the White House said the project was “now five years behind schedule, delayed until 2029 or later, despite the contract being awarded in 2018”.
“They can never finish the damn thing,” Trump complained in February.
The Air Force had previously disclosed that about a dozen technical obstacles have caused delays – from flaws in the cockpit and passenger windows to cracked fuselage structures, excessive noise and the required certification of the unique planes’ flight-handling characteristics.
The delays have led Trump to start looking elsewhere for a new plane, and his eye has fallen on a Qatari-owned 747 dripping in the kind of gilded, leather-swathed luxury that the former real estate developer is known to crave. BLOOMBERG
