CNN is reporting that the Air Force, with the backing of the White House, initiated the discussions about acquiring the Qatari royal family’s former private Boeing 747. President Donald Trump and various senior officials have consistently characterized the proposed transaction as the offer of a gift from Qatar, but the network said its sources said the Air Force approached Qatar and tentatively offered to buy it. The inquiry from the Air Force was the result of a discussion with Boeing about the delays in finishing the two new VC-25 executive transport aircraft that will be used as Air Force One when the president is on board. CNN said Boeing gave the Air Force a list of available aircraft that could be modified to do the job and the Qatari plane was on the list. Discussions are still going on over the potential deal.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has introduced a bill that would ban the use of foreign-supplied aircraft for Air Force One. The bill would also prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to make modifications to those planes. The bill is aimed at killing a deal for Qatar to give the U.S. government a 13-year-old Boeing 747-8 to be converted into a replacement for the two VC-25s (both 35 years old) that are now at President Donald Trump’s disposal. Qatar is disposing of the plane, often described as a “flying palace,” because it bought a brand-new 747-8i. The plan would involve giving the plane to the Air Force for conversion and when Trump leaves office to have the Air Force transfer it to his presidential library.
“Not only would it take billions of taxpayer dollars to even attempt to retrofit and secure this plane, but there’s absolutely no amount of modifications that can guarantee it will be secure,” Schumer said in a statement. “It is now on the Senate to prioritize our national security, protect Americans, and ensure that a foreign-owned plane never gets the call sign ‘Air Force One.’” Schumer would need a few Republican votes to pass the bill in the Senate and there might be some support there. “This gift from Qatar is rife with legal, ethical, and practical impediments, including the potential for espionage,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I’m not sure how we would be able to adequately inspect and outfit it to prevent that from happening.”
It just keeps morphing into a bigger and bigger MSM pretzel.
The aircraft is worth what someone is willing to pay for the aircraft’s usable parts, other than that, it has no other value even if someone wanted to operate it, the value is the sum of the value of the spare parts. So its a gift of $50 million.
The Air Force wants this plane either for spare parts or to gut the interior for use as a SAOC platform delivered to Sierra Nevada.
Trump of course is the chief pretzel maker. But ask yourself whats in it for him to create the grand illusion of ultimately being a gift to Trump (or rather his library) ?
If the US government buys this plane, the aircraft will never be used by any POTUS, nor will it be donated by the US government to the Trump presidential library. Thats ludicrous to even think that!
Even the guy that was helping to re-market the aircraft said in effect its not a good idea to try and make this airplane fit for POTUS. He warns the required program(which he has some experience with) is an inferior idea to accelerating the two aircraft Boeing already has in work.
In April 2024, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded a contract to develop and build the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) aircraft to replace the fleet of Boeing E-4 NAOC (B747-200’s) . Five 747-8Is were purchased from Korean Air for conversion, with the contract calling for nine in total.
Where are the other four 8i’s being sourced from?
Spare parts needed for a planned fleet of 11 USAF 747-8i.
My point is you need to know something about the game to make any sense out of what has been mostly a hail of BS claims and misdirection. No POTUS will never fly in the ‘flying palace ’. Its all ‘click bait’ while he is quietly preparing or executing things he doesn’t want the American mainstream media or the American people to focus on.