Inside Air Drive One as new period beckons for presidential airplane

[ad_1] Anthony Zurcher On board Air Drive One

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f23b/live/5340d560-326c-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Getty Images The blue and white Air Force One sits on a airfield tarmac in Qatar. Officials in white outfits stand on either side of a red carpet that rolls out from the plane's door. " class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos Most journalists travelling with the US president do not see a lot of the inside of Air Drive One, the presidential jet.

The press cabin is behind the airplane, accessible by a rear set of steps and a fast flip of a nook.

To succeed in the presidential suite on the entrance of the airplane would require negotiating with the armed Secret Service brokers within the next-door cabin.

On Donald Trump's journey to the Center East this week, when the way forward for the well-known airplane was an enormous speaking level, Fox Information host Sean Hannity had precedence seating and entry to the president to conduct an in-flight interview.

However the remainder of us within the travelling press pool had been consigned to our small part of the airplane.

It was a whirlwind journey, hitting three nations in three nights, half a world away. The president described it as an "endurance check" - one which his workers and people of us within the press pool needed to handle, as properly.

The presidential jet just isn't a foul strategy to fly, nevertheless. The 14 seats are snug, roughly on par with a first-class home flight.

There is a rest room and a desk with snacks (together with the coveted Air Drive One-branded M&Ms bearing the president's signature, which are not accessible anyplace else).

The cabin has a pair of tv screens - often tuned to the president's most popular cable information channel (CNN throughout Joe Biden's time period; Fox Information for Trump). Now and again, they have been set to a soccer sport or different sporting occasions.

For longer flights, the on-board kitchen serves plated meals (the president eats from a distinct, fancier menu). On brief hops, there's often meals in a takeaway bag.

Watch: President Trump takes a query from the BBC's Anthony Zurcher on board

However the inside of this well-known plane may quickly endure a radical refit if, as seems possible, Trump accepts the Qatari provide to provide a brand new "palace within the sky" - the largest international present ever acquired by a US president.

Technically, "Air Drive One" is a radio name signal, the designation for any Air Drive plane with the US president aboard. The small prop airplane Lyndon Baines Johnson took from Austin to his Texas ranch within the Sixties was Air Drive One, too.

However the Air Drive One most individuals image, the one featured within the Harrison Ford motion movie, is the 747-200b with water blue, metal blue and white paint set towards a chrome underbody - a color scheme picked out by First Woman Jackie Kennedy in 1962.

At the moment there are two of those 747s within the Air Drive passenger fleet, in use since 1990. Evidently, expertise – each in plane design and every little thing else – has come a good distance within the ensuing years. The planes have been upgraded, however the prices of sustaining the airframe and engines are rising. The aircrafts are exhibiting their age.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1381/live/3a91a080-32e4-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images In a black and white archival photo, Jackie Kennedy watches Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as president in an airplane cabin after the assassination of her husband, JFK, in 1963. They are surrounded by on-lookers standing in the cabin." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos Jackie Kennedy watches Lyndon Johnson being sworn in as president on board after the assassination of her husband, JFK, in 1963

This has clearly irked the present White Home occupant – the one president to personal his personal jet, or for that matter, his personal airline, previous to taking workplace.

"I go away now and get onto a 42-year-old Boeing," he stated, exaggerating the airplane's age throughout an business briefing on Thursday in Abu Dhabi. "However new ones are coming."

Coming, however not quickly sufficient for Trump. Throughout his first time period, he touted an up to date presidential plane, made by Boeing, that was within the works. He even picked out his personal color palette, scrapping Kennedy's design for a red-white-and-blue livery. He proudly shows a mannequin of that jet within the Oval Workplace.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8f8e/live/6af15b10-3309-11f0-8947-7d6241f9fce9.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images President Obama wears a white shirt and sits in a leather chair at a wooden conference table on Air Force One. It is 2012 and he is making phone calls. A person out of view is shown in another seat working at a laptop." class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos President Obama making calls on board in 2012

Initially deliberate to be delivered by 2021, delays and price overruns for the estimated $4bn development programme have made it much less possible that the 2 new planes on order will probably be accessible for a lot, if any, of Trump's second time period in workplace, which expires in January 2029.

He has tasked tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk with rushing up the method and reportedly groused in personal that he's embarrassed to journey in such an outdated airplane.

That explains why the president has turn into enamoured with the prospect of a seemingly extra fast resolution to his air transport woes – courtesy of the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.

Information of Qatar's provide of a lavish $400m 747-8 made headlines final week, however the present apparently has been within the works for months.

Trump surreptitiously visited the plane in query in mid-February, just some weeks after the beginning of his second time period in workplace.

Other than the authorized and moral considerations of such a considerable present – raised by critics and a few allies of the president - changing a international 747 to be used by an American president creates plenty of technical challenges.

The plane must be made able to in-flight refuelling and retrofitted with a complicated bundle of communications and safety gear. The present fashions have techniques constructed to resist the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/98f3/live/accc91f0-326c-11f0-96c3-cf669419a2b0.png.webp" loading="lazy" alt="A BBC graphic shows the general layout of Air Force One. It holds 26 crew and 70 passengers. Text highlights points of interest on the plane, including the President's suite, a medical facility and the press section. " class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Such a refitting course of, says aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory, would take years, till 2030 at the very least.

"They need to assume the jet has been left unattended in a harmful place for 13 years," he says. "Which implies it isn't sufficient to take the airplane aside. You additionally need to take each single part aside."

The airplane would wish further energy to run its new techniques, and its inside might need to be rearranged. Likelihood is there is no press cabin within the flying palace as initially designed.

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research' Protection and Safety Division, says the prices of such retrofitting may simply run to $1bn.

He provides, nevertheless, that Trump may waive some, or all, of the safety modifications if he so chooses.

"He is the president," he stated.

When the Air Drive in the end does retire its present crop of 747s, it's going to put to pasture an plane which were a part of material of American historical past for many years. One which transported President Invoice Clinton, together with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W Bush, to Israel for Yitzhak Rabin's funeral in 1995.

After the 9/11 assault on the World Commerce Middle and Pentagon, George W Bush took to the skies in Air Drive One and stayed aloft for hours, refuelling mid-air, till his safety crew decided it was secure for him to land and deal with the nation, earlier than in the end returning to Washington.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/8952/live/d6a658f0-326f-11f0-8519-3b5a01ebe413.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Getty Images George W Bush looks out the window of Air Force Once, gesturing as he speaks on the phone hours after 9/11 attacks" class="sc-4abb68ca-0 ldLcJe"/> Getty Photos President George W Bush directing the 9/11 response from Air Drive One hours after the assaults

Six US presidents have travelled on these jets, criss-crossing the US and visiting all corners of the globe. One took Biden to Israel simply days after the 7 October assault by Hamas.

Trump has successfully employed the plane as a marketing campaign gadget, holding political rallies at airfields and making low-speed passes over the crowds earlier than touchdown and utilizing Air Drive One as a dramatic backdrop for his speeches.

On Trump's current Mid East journey, navy fighters from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE accompanied Air Drive One because it flew by means of their nationwide airspace.

Getting old although it might be, Air Drive One continues to be probably the most recognisable indicators of American presidential authority and energy on the earth - a navy plane that serves the next goal.