The Boeing 747-8 being offered to Donald Trump by Qatar once served the Qatari royal family and has been sitting unsold for years.
The jet, a lavishly configured version of Boeing’s largest passenger aircraft, has been lingering without a buyer since being put up for sale in 2020, according to aircraft listings and aviation analysts.
John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Forbes that giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that were only getting higher—with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them.
I’m curious how they would convert this to be a functional Air Force One plane.
That aircraft is disassembled and reassembled almost entirely on a regular basis to keep it in tip top shape and find sabotage and issues, etc.
It’s also equipped specially with military defences, and of course has an onboard suite of equipment and personnel to run a war from the sky, in air refuelling, etc etc.
It’s an EXTREMELY specialised version of that very reliable aircraft, is what I’m saying.
How would they bring this new plane up to that standard, and why should they waste tax money on doing so? What’s the benefit to the nation?
It all seems ridiculous from the outside looking in. It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes, always getting the worst end of a deal, when the smarter people play him over and over.
…no?
I mean, you said it. They are trying to appease a stupid man, that’s all there is to it.
I too think the gift is for use after his presidency, I read somewhere.
But in this times you never know.
Spoilers: They absolutely will not be bringing this death trap up to the current plane’s standards.
This will either site on a tarmac largely forgotten about for four years, at which point Trump will try and off-load it (if he hasn’t completely forgotten he owns it). Or it’ll become one of those “never going to be finished” government vanity projects that becomes an excuse to write blank checks to Boeing for billing statements littered with “Headlight Fluid: $4k, Crank Shaft Lengthening Service: $20k” line items.
Absolute best case scenario, someone in the administration actually tries to fly in this thing before the term is complete. And we all get to laugh (or cry, depending on who it lands on) on reading the consequences.
That’s who Americans believe is best able to run our country. We have been kicking and screaming for the last 40 years to have the US run like a business. And what other business best exemplifies the US than Used Car Dealership?
Why do you even jokingly use a framework in which you’re assuming the current US government does anything “for the nation” instead of themselves?
And also, they’re just gonna ward off attacks with, uhm… gilded smoothie machines and massaging chairs.