Renderings of the new Air Force One presidential jet show some new additions to the iconic plane, but confirm that the Air Force and its contractor Boeing have decided to ditch Donald Trump’s proposed new red, white and blue colour scheme.
In June 2022, news broke that the Biden administration wouldn’t be going with Mr Trump’s original design for the two new planes specified in the 2018 contract.
"The Trump paint scheme is not being considered because it could drive additional engineering, time and cost," an administration official told Reuters.
According to the Air Force, Mr Trump’s embrace of dark colors on the outside of the plane would attract extra heat that could threaten the craft’s array of sensitive electronics.
Mr Trump had been insistent on a new patriotic look.
“Air Force One is going to be incredible,” he told CBS at the time. “It’s going to be the top of the line, the top in the world. And it’s going to be red, white and blue, which I think is appropriate.”
Instead, as CNN reports, new renderings show that “Next Force One” will have a slightly darker blue that the current robin’s egg panels on the plane, which have been around since the days of the John F Kennedy administration.
Aerospace firm Boeing has been working on the new planes, a pair of modified 747-8i jetliners, since 2018, but the project has been beset with delays and cost overruns.
The first of the two new Air Force One jets is expected to be delivered in 2027, according to CNN, with the second a year later.
Last April, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said taking on the $3.9bn fixed contract to build the new jets was a risk the company “probably shouldn’t have taken.”
“Air Force One I’m just gonna call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken, but we are where we are and we’re going to deliver great airplanes. And we’re gonna recognize the cost associated with it,” he said during an earnings call.
The executive blamed Covid, supply chain issues, inflation, and other factors for the project running millions over budget, according to The Verge.
Mr Trump took the unusual step of personally involving himself in the negotiations around the Air Force One contract, an apparent object of interest for him.
In 2016, he threatened to cut off the White House’s relationship with the company and seek a new manufacturer for Air Force One.
