Castles In The Air

DOD has accepted the Qatari jet, but there’s nothing in that which contradicts anything I’ve read about it:

“The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations,” the chief Pentagon spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement. “The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.”

The plane, which industry executives estimated is worth about $200 million, will require extensive work before it can be considered secure enough to carry Mr. Trump, Pentagon officials have acknowledged in recent days.

“Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications to do so,” Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, said on Tuesday during Senate testimony. “Based on the secretary’s direction, we are postured and we’re off looking at that right now, what it’s going to take for that particular aircraft.”

Interestingly, it’s been in San Antonio (several bases there) undergoing maintenance. Which would conform with reports it needs heavy maintenance before it’s airworthy. And there’s the fact no one wants 747’s anymore, because, as we knew, they’re gas guzzlers (4 engines bad, 2 engines better).

The plan has drawn concern from members of Congress, who worry that Mr. Trump will pressure the Air Force to do the work so fast that sufficient security measures are not built into the plane, such as missile defense systems or even systems to protect the plane from the electromagnetic effects of a nuclear blast.

“If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois, said as Mr. Meink was testifying.

The Pentagon has not given an estimate of when the work on the Qatari plane might be done, even though Mr. Trump and the White House have made clear the president wants it soon, perhaps even by the end of the year.

“We will make sure that we do what’s necessary to ensure security of the aircraft,” Mr. Meink said at the Senate hearing. “I will be quite clear and discuss that with the secretary up to the president if necessary if we feel there’s any threats that we are unable to address.”

Trump wants his big, fancy plane now. He probably imagines it will still be a “flying palace,” too.  This matter is going to require Congressional oversight.

The new plane will be the third being retrofitted for use as Air Force One, replacing two planes that have been in use for 35 years and have had maintenance problems.

But maintaining the staff and equipment for three planes is extraordinarily expensive, an estimated $135 million a year for each plane, according to the Pentagon. And it could cost $1 billion or more to retrofit the Qatari plane to get it ready for use as Air Force One, a process that former Air Force officials said could take longer than finishing the job Boeing is already doing to deliver the replacements for the current two planes.

The first of the Boeing planes is scheduled to be delivered in 2027, Air Force officials recently said.

It remains unclear where the money will come from to retrofit the Qatari plane or to maintain and operate it, once it is completed. Congress typically reviews and approves spending on any new major Pentagon programs. But Mr. Trump has already shown a willingness to spend federal dollars as his administration wants, often without consulting Congress.

I suspect the bureaucracy in the Pentagon knows how NOT to lose money from their programs by, say, communicating with Congress.  $1 billion is lot to reallocate. There’s gonna be pushback, like: “Sorry. Tell the POTUS we can’t get enough qualified people to work on 3 planes at once. We could end up not getting any of the three ready. So we have Boeing concentrating on their contract. There aren’t enough people in the world to work on a third.”

And there’s still Congressional oversight:

The Senate majority leader, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said this month that Congress would be asking questions about any possible use of the Qatari plane as Air Force One.

After Trump’s big, beautiful bill,

Casar: They are trying to rob everyday working-class Americans in the middle of the night. We know that this is the biggest Medicaid cut in American history, but we heard overnight that this is also going to be the biggest potential Medicare cut in American history. pic.twitter.com/rVzkkwxd2D

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 22, 2025

Yeah, that one, the walking horror currently stalking the halls of Congress; after that thing fails (they don’t call Medicare and Social Security the “third rail” for nothing), there won’t be much stomach for all the expenses of a third AF1.

Marc J. Foulkrod, the chief executive officer of Avjet Global Sales, which tried to help Qatar sell the plane, said the United States would be better off working with Boeing to accelerate its work on the $3.9 billion contract to deliver the two 747 jets it has already been working on for five years.

“I’ve done completions on big airplanes, and there’s always ways to accelerate the program,” Mr. Foulkrod said in an interview. “That’s a better dollar value than trying to take an airplane from somebody else.”

On at least one level, the Qatari royal family just wanted to get this albatross off their necks. And there’s a certain pleasure in thinking Trump will never get any use of it, whether Congress funds its renovation or not. We really can’t allow the POTUS to fly in just any plane. ✈️ 

Trump may stomp his feet; but the midterms could change everything, and ground his dreams of riding in, or keeping, a flying palace.

Trump is so addled and his brain is so rotten that he got slapped and didn't understand it. https://t.co/JEY19PWiS4

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) May 21, 2025

I mean, really.