Inside Air Force One as the new era attracts the presidential plane

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

The press cabin is in the back of the aircraft, accessible from the back set of steps and a quick corner.

To get to the presidential apartment in front of the aircraft, it will require negotiations with armed agents for secret services in the neighboring door.

During Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East this week, when the future of the famous aircraft was a huge conversation, Fox News host Sean Haniti had priority seats and access to the president to hold a flight interview.

But the rest of us in the travel pool were sent to our small section of the plane.

It was a whirlwind trip, hitting three nations for three nights, half a world at a distance. The president described him as a “endurance test” – the one that his staff and those of us in the press had to manage.

However, the presidential plane is not a bad way to fly. The 14 seats are comfortable, approximately on a par with first-class internal flight.

There is a bathroom and a table with snacks (including the M&S -branded Air Force, bearing the signature of the president who is not available anywhere else).

The cabin has a pair of television monitors – usually tuned to the president’s cable news channel (CNN during Joe Biden’s term; Fox News for Trump). Sometimes they were set up for a football match or other sporting events.

For longer flights, the on-board kitchen serves coated dishes (the president eats from a different, more fantastic menu). In short hops, there is usually food in the take -off bag.

But the interior of this famous aircraft may soon undergo radical repairs, if, it seems likely, Trump assumes that the Cathars’ proposal to deliver a new “palace in the sky” – the largest foreign gift received by an US president.

Air Force One Technically is a sign of radio hosteering, the designation of every airplane airplane with the US president on board. Little Prop Airplane Lindon Banes Johnson took Austin to his Texas ranch in the 1960s was also One Force One.

But the photo of the Air Force One Moy People, the one presented in the Harrison Ford action movie, is 747-200b with water blue, steel blue and white paint, a set vs. Chrome Underbody – a color scheme chosen by the first lady Jackie Kennedy in 1962.

There are currently two of these 747 in the Air Force Passenger Fleet used since 1990.S Needless to say, technology – both in the design of aircraft and in everything else – has passed a long way in the coming years. The aircraft are upgraded, but the cost of maintaining the air frame and the engines are increasing. The aircraft shows its age.

This obviously annoyed the current White House resident, the only president to have his own jet or on this issue, his own airline before taking office.

“I leave now and I get on a 42-year-old Boeing,” he said, exaggerating the age of the plane during a briefing in the industry on Thursday at Abu Dhabi. “But new ones are coming.”

It comes, but not enough for Trump soon. During his first term, he advertised an updated presidential aircraft made by Boeing, which is at work. He even chose his own color palette by scrapping Kennedy’s design for red and white and blue liver. He proudly shows a model of this jet in the oval office.

It was initially planned to be delivered by 2021, the delays and exceeding the cost of the $ 4 billion estimated construction program made less likely the two new custom planes to be available to many, if any, from the second Trump term, which expires in January 2029.

He has instructed the technological multillionaire Elon Musk to speed up the process and, according to reports, that he is disturbed to travel in such an outdated plane.

This explains why the President fell in love with the perspective for a seemingly more consistent decision on his troubles of air transport – the courtesy of the Persian Gulf of Qatar.

The news of Qatar’s offer for gorgeous $ 400 million 747-8 made titles last week, but the gift has been obviously in work for months.

Trump secretly visited the aircraft in question in mid -February, just a few weeks after the start of his second office.

In addition to the legal and ethical problems of such an essential gift – raised by critics and some allies of the president – turning foreign 747 to use by an US president creates a number of technical challenges.

The aircraft will have to be able to charge while loading with a flight and retrofit with a complex package of communication and security. The current models have systems built to withstand the electromagnetic impulse of a nuclear explosion.

A similar process of retrofitting, says aviation analyst Richard Abulafia, managing director of aerodynamic consultations, will take years, at least until 2030.

“They have to accept that the plane has been left unattended in a dangerous place for 13 years,” he says. “Which means it’s not enough to separate the aircraft. You also have to separate each component.”

The aircraft will need extra power to launch its new systems and its interior may need to be rearranged. It is probably that there is no press in the flying palace, as originally designed.

Mark Kanian, a senior councilor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the Defense and Security Division, says the cost of such modernization can easily reach up to $ 1 billion.

However, he adds that Trump can give up some or all of the security modifications if he decides.

“He is the president,” he said.

When the Air Force eventually retires its current 747 harvest, it will put an airplane on pastures that has been part of the fabric of American history for decades. One who transports President Bill Clinton, along with former presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. Bush, in Israel for the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

Following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, George in Bush took the sky in the Air Force One and remained in height for hours, charging in the middle of the air until his security team decides that it was safe to land and turn to the nation before he eventually returned to Washington.

Six American presidents have traveled to these planes, crossing the United States and visiting all the angles of the globe. One took Biden to Israel just days after the attack on October 7 from Hamas.

Trump has effectively used the aircraft as a campaign device, conducting political rallies at airports and making low -speed passages before landing and using Air Force One as a dramatic background for his speeches.

On Trump’s recent journey to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE accompanied the Air Force as they flew through their national airspace in the middle of the east.

Aging, although it may turn out, Air Force One is still one of the most recognizable signs of US presidential power and power in the world -a military aircraft that serves a higher goal.

“It’s not done for luxury,” Abulafia says. “It’s a flying command post. You’re not there to throw parties.”

Additional reporting by Max Matza