Boeing’s New Air Force One Runs Even Later With Two-Year Delay

(Bloomberg) -- The next-generation Air Force One presidential jets will be delivered at least two years after their original mid-2024 date “due to a combination of factors,” the service said in a statement.

The factors behind the delay include “impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic, interiors supplier transition, manpower limitations, wiring design timelines, and test execution rates,” the service said Tuesday. A final determination on the schedule for the Boeing Co. planes will be decided by Pentagon acquisition officials after “further review.”

Previous unconfirmed estimates on delays to the program have ranged from one year to 17 months as the service continued its assessment. Air Force officials as recently as 2020 said the “program is holding to schedule” to deliver the first aircraft in 2024 and the second in 2025.

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget request seeks $493 million for continued modification of two Boeing planes for presidential transport “in order to field the capability by 2026.”

Then-President Donald Trump in 2019 unveiled a red-white-and-blue painted Air Force One design during an interview on ABC News. He boasted at the time that his proposal would save taxpayers about $1.6 billion by pressing for two already-built 747-8 planes to be retrofitted and converted to serve as presidential aircraft. 

The Pentagon Comptroller’s budget book outlining the latest funding request depicts, as in the past two years, the color scheme favored by Trump.

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