Air Force One and the Boeing 747 donated by Qatar still get Trump’s tacky paint job – Jalopnik

We’ve been hearing about President Donald Trump’s desire to repaint Air Force One as the inverse of his private 757 since his first presidency, and unfortunately, it looks like that’s finally happening. Air Force officials confirmed Tuesday by CNN that the end is near for the baby blue and white paint scheme that has adorned Air Force One since the Kennedy administration.

It also confirmed that the Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to the US military as interim Air Force One will be given the new livery and fly as early as this summer, but the two Boeing-modified 747s are still not ready.

The tacky paint scheme in question effectively bisects the aircraft’s fuselage with a dark red metallic line above a gold line and a dark blue underside. “In 2022, during the Biden administration, the livery was rejected by the Air Force due to cost and technical reasons.” An Air Force spokesperson said this CNN in 2022, dark colors on the underside of the VC-25B, the military designation for the modified 747s that serve as Air Force One, among other things could contribute to temperatures exceeding current qualification limits on a small number of components. It is unclear how this concern has been addressed for the Trump administration’s new livery.

A Department of Homeland Security Boeing 737 began flying last year with Trump’s favorite paint scheme, and a military version of the Boeing 757 called the C-32 has already been given a paint job and will be delivered to the Air Force in the coming months. Three other C-32s will also receive the livery during scheduled maintenance.

Trump ordered the new Air Force One from Boeing in 2018, but due to a series of unsurprising delays on Boeing’s part, the planes are still not ready. The two 747s being overhauled by Boeing to meet Pentagon standards were originally built for a Russian airline that never acquired the planes. The Wall Street Journal reports this“Among the challenges that Boeing found difficult to solve: installing the complex wiring system and interior of the aircraft and finding enough employees with the best safety credentials to work on the top-secret project. Boeing also had a dispute with a key Air Force One subcontractor, which declared bankruptcy in 2021.”

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An Air Force spokesperson told CNN last month that the Qatari-donated plane that Donald Trump had converted for use as Air Force One until the two repurposed Russian planes are ready is expected to be delivered no later than this summer.