Air Force One is arguably one of the most famous aircraft callsigns in the world. Applied to aircraft being used to transport the current President of the United States of America, it has become synonymous with the Boeing
VC-25A, a modified example of the US manufacturer’s iconic 747 of which the US Air Force flies two examples for such duties. However, these aircraft are now rather old.
Boeing 747
Launch Customer(s)
Pan American World Airways
First Delivery
January 22, 1970
Last Delivery
January 31, 2023
Number Delivered
1,573
Production Sites
Everett, Washington, United States
Indeed, having first flown as long ago as 1987, they have been around for nearly four decades, and this is something that the US President Donald Trump wants to change. For several years now, the USAF has been waiting on replacement aircraft (modified 747-8s known as the VC-25B) from Boeing. However, ongoing delays on this front have forced President Trump to look elsewhere in the short term.
Photo: Alec Wilson | Wikimedia Commons
Regular readers of Simple Flying will know that the US’s ongoing efforts to replace the Air Force’s aging ‘Air Force One’ jets have been a hot topic in recent years, and not just since Trump’s second term in office began. However, since beginning his second term, the President has made it a priority to solve this issue, amid the news that the replacements may not fly until 2029. This would be after the end of Trump’s second term, so, in the meantime, an interim solution has arisen.
Earlier this year, in February, Trump made headlines by touring a private Boeing 747-8 in Palm Beach. The VIP aircraft had previously been operated by the Qatar Amiri Flight, and this tour indicated the President’s intentions to source an interim aircraft to bridge the gap between the old VC-25A and the new VC-25B. Expressing his frustration at the ongoing delays, Trump stated at the time in February that:
“I’m not happy with the fact that it’s taking Boeing so long. I would not consider Airbus over Boeing. But I could buy that one that was used, and convert it. I could buy one from another country, perhaps.”
L3Harris Has Been Picked To Overhaul The Chosen Aircraft
Photo: Adam Moreira | Wikimedia Commons
Several months down the line, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Trump had taken a key step forward in his efforts to source an interim aircraft by appointing a defense contractor to overhaul a plane for presidential use. As the publication notes, the contractor that has been appointed to refurbish the aircraft (registered as P4-HBJ according to aeroTELEGRAPH) is L3Harris.
According to current fleet data made available by ch-aviation, the private Boeing 747-8
(which used to fly for the government of Qatar) already has a luxurious VIP configuration, with just 89 seats onboard the enormous double-decker quadjet.
However, an overhaul is required to ensure that its specifications align with those demanded by a presidential aircraft, with the WSJ noting that it needs to be retrofitted with certain specialized systems before it can serve in its new role.
Operator
Registration
Period
Qatar Amiri Flight
A7-HJA
April 2012 – July 2015
Qatar Amiri Flight
A7-HBJ
July 2015 – December 2023
Global Jet Isle Of Man
P4-HBJ
December 2023 – Present
Related
Boeing Workers No Longer Need Top Security Clearance To Work On Air Force One
Boeing has been under pressure from President Trump to deliver the latest version of Air Force One as quickly as possible.
Diving Deeper Into The Life & Times Of P4-HBJ
Image: Flightradar24
According to ch-aviation, the aircraft in question is just over 13 years old, having first flown in March of 2012. It was delivered to the Qatar Amiri Flight a month later under the registration A7-HJA, and remained operational in this role for more than a decade. During this time, it was re-registered as A7-HBJ in July of 2015, before, in December 2023, taking on the registration P4-HBJ as it transferred to Global Jet.
As is often the case with private and governmental aircraft, tracking data concerning the aircraft’s history is difficult to come by. However, as seen in the map embedded above, Flightradar24 shows that, at the end of its tenure in Qatar, in December 2023, it made a 14-hour flight across the Middle East, Europe, and the North Atlantic Ocean from Doha Hamad International (DOH) to New York JFK Airport
. All being well, Trump wants this aircraft to be available for presidential use by the fall.
