Trump, In Appeal To Car Enthusiasts, Replaces Two Working Jets With Five That Can't Fly

The end of President Donald Trump's desperate wait to fly on a new Air Force One is getting precariously close to the end of his second term. Boeing confirmed last Friday that the delivery of its two VC-25B aircraft has been delayed yet again. The first plane of the pair won't be ready for service until the middle of 2028 at the soonest. Coincidentally, Lufthansa is selling a pair of its Boeing 747-8 aircraft with the U.S. Air Force as the rumored buyer. With the purchase, there will be five Boeing 747-8s in government control, none of which are ready to fly the President. 

Who among us doesn't have a few crummy means of transportation that we swear we will eventually get operational just hanging around? Trump's just like us, for real. Lufthansa parting ways with two Boeing 747s seems unusual on the surface because the airline has been a dedicated operator of Boeing's behemoths. The German flag carrier is currently retrofitting its fleet of 19 Boeing 747-8, now 17 after the sale. According to Simple Flying, Lufthansa confirmed the sale is taking place but won't identify the buyer. The sold planes entered service in 2012 and 2013. While it might not sound appealing to convert planes that are over a decade old, the current VC-25As were introduced in 1990.

This debacle began back in 2018 when Trump placed a $3.9 billion order with Boeing. With production on the 747 ended, the American aviation giant planned to convert a pair of planes that were ordered by a collapsed Russian airline. However, work on the conversion was continually delayed by Boeing's struggles to find workers with the necessary top-secret clearance. Due to the delays, the project to now expected to lose Boeing at least $2.4 million.

Trump can't hide how desperate he is to fly on a new Air Force One. After he was elected to a second term, Trump called Boeing CEO that same November for an update on the project. Then, the Qatar royal family gifted Trump a 747 as a golden carrot to seal a $96 billion deal with Boeing. While the plan was free for Trump, the Department of Defense transferred $934 million out for a nuclear missile modernization program into "an unnamed classified project" presumed to be the gift plane's fast-tracked conversion. The cherry on top for the President is that the plane will be transferred to his presidential library after he leaves office. A site for the library hasn't even been selected yet, so he could potentially use it as his private plane.