Inside the first Air Force, a new era loves the presidential plane

Most of the journalists traveling with the American President do not see much of the interior of Air Force One, the presidential plane.

Press cabin at the back of the plane, and can be reached by a set of back steps and rapid rotation of an angle.

To reach the presidential wing at the front of the plane, negotiating with armed secret services agents requires the adjacent cabin.

On Donald Trump’s flight to the Middle East this week, when the future of the famous plane was a huge discussion point, Sean Hanity, Fox News, had a priority to sit and reach the president for an interview on the plane.

But the rest of us in the journalism gathering were transported to our small part of the plane.

It was a journey of a whirlwind, and it hit three countries in three nights, half of the world. The president described it as a “endurance test” – whose employees and those of us have also had to manage the press.

However, the presidential plane is not a bad way to fly. 14 comfortable seats, almost equally with a first -class local trip.

There is a bathroom and a table with snacks (including the desired Air Force, which bears the signature of the president, which is not available anywhere).

The cabin contains a pair of television screens – it is usually seized on the President’s favorite channel (CNN during the Joe Biden state period). Sometimes, they were appointed to a football game or other sporting events.

For long trips, the kitchen on the food serves painted meals (the president consists of a different list of breeders). On short jumps, there is usually food in the ready -made meal bag.

But the inner part of this famous plane can soon be subjected to a fundamental regeneration if, as it seems, Trump accepts the Qatari offer to supply the new “Palace in the sky” – the largest foreign gift he received as an American president.

Technically, “Air Force One” is a radio summons, and it is a naming for any air force plane with the American president on board. The small pillar plane Lindon Pines Johnson from Austin to the Texas Farm in the 1960s was the first air force as well.

But Air Force One Most People, which appeared in Harrison Ford Action, is Boeing 747-200B with blue, blue and white watercolor against Chrome Underboard – a color system chosen by the first lady Jackie Kennedy in 1962.

There are currently two of these 747 in the Air Force passenger fleet, have been used since 1990. It goes without saying that technology – both in aircraft design and everything else – has come a long way in the following years. The planes are upgraded, but the costs of maintaining the structure of the plane and engines grow. The plane shows their age.

It is clear that this spoiled the current White House employer – the only president to have a plane, or in this regard, his private airline, before assuming his position.

“I leave now and I have a 42 -year -old Boeing.” “But the new ones are coming.”

Coming, but not soon enough for Trump. During his first term, he described an updated presidential flight, made by Boeing, which was in the works. He even chose his color palette, and he canceled Kennedy’s design for a red and blue lament. It proudly shows a model for that plane in the Oval Office.

It is originally planned to be delivered by 2021, the delay and costs of the estimated construction program worth $ 4 billion made it unlikely that the two new aircraft upon request are available, if any, from the second Trump state in the office, which ends in January 2029.

Illon Musk was assigned to tech technological in billions of technical bodies, while accelerating the process and stating that he was unilateral that he was embarrassed to travel on such an old plane.

This explains why the president became fond of the possibility of a more urgent solution to air transport problems – with the permission of the Persian Gulf nation in Qatar.

The news of Qatar’s offer at $ 400 million (301 million pounds) 747-8 issued newspaper headlines last week, but the gift appears to have been operating for months.

Trump visited the plane hidden the plane in mid -February, a few weeks after the start of his second term in office.

Regardless of the legal and moral concerns of such a great gift – raised by critics and some of the president’s allies – a foreign transformation of 747 for its use by the American President creates a number of technical challenges.

The plane should be able to refuel and re -update with a sophisticated set of security equipment and equipment. Current models have systems designed to withstand the electromagnetic pulse of the nuclear explosion.

Richard Apollavia, aviation analyst, says that the aviation analyst, administrative director of aerodynamic consulting, will take years until 2030, at least.

“They should assume that the plane has been left without surveillance in a 13 -year -old place,” he says. “Which means that it is not enough to dismantle the plane. You also have to separate each component.”

The plane will need additional energy to operate its new systems, and its interior may have to be rearranged. There are no possibilities for a press compartment at the Palace of Aviation as it was originally designed.

Mark Kansian, a senior consultant at the Defense and Security Center in Strategic and International Studies, says the costs of this modernization amendment can easily work to one billion dollars (750 million pounds).

He adds, however, that Trump can give up some or all security modifications if he chooses.

“He is the president,” he said.

When the Air Force eventually retires its current 747 -year -old crop, it will put on the pastures of a plane that was part of the American history fabric for decades. One who moved President Bill Clinton, along with former presidents Jimmy Carter and George Harbter Bush, to Israel for the Yitzha Rabin funeral in 1995.

After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, George W. Bush moved to the sky in the first air force and remained high for hours, and it is refueling in the air, until his security team decided that it is safe for him to land and address the nation, before eventually returning to Washington.

Six American presidents traveled on these planes, intersecting with the United States and visiting all angles of the world. One Biden took to Israel a few days after the October 7 attack by Hamas.

Trump effectively made the plane as a campaign device, holding political marches at airports and making low -speed permits on the crowd before landing and using Air Force One as a dramatic background for his sermons.

On Trump’s journey in the middle of the last east, military fighters from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were accompanied by the first air force while flying across the national airspace.

Nevertheless, Air Force One is still one of the most important signs of the US presidential authority and the US presidential authority – a military plane that serves a higher purpose.

“It is not for luxury,” says Apollia. “It is a publication of flying. You are not there to throw parties.”

Additional reports by Max Matza