On December 12 local time, according to a report by Reuters citing U.S. Air Force sources, the new generation of presidential aircraft "Air Force One" project, manufactured by Boeing, has faced another delay. The delivery of the first aircraft has been postponed to 2028, nearly four years later than originally planned.

The report said that this delivery delay may cause dissatisfaction from President Trump. Trump had previously expressed his wish to take the new "Air Force One" on official business before the end of his presidential term, i.e., before January 2029.

According to the information, the current "Air Force One" aircraft was put into service in 1990 and has been in service for more than 30 years.

The new generation "Air Force One" project aims to convert two Boeing 747-8 aircraft into presidential aircraft equipped with top communication and defense systems. Boeing stated that although the project is being continuously advanced, due to the company's commitment to "delivering two outstanding Air Force One aircraft for the country," the delivery delay is inevitable.

Boeing 747-8 aircraft (photo for reference) Reuters

It is known that Boeing won a contract worth $3.9 billion (about RMB 27.551 billion) in 2018, but as the project progressed, the costs kept rising. To date, due to actual costs exceeding the contract price, Boeing has submitted an additional $2.4 billion (about RMB 16.954 billion) compensation request to the U.S. government for this project. Therefore, the total cost borne by Boeing for these two presidential aircraft has exceeded $5 billion (about RMB 35.27 billion).

In fact, Trump had expressed dissatisfaction with Boeing over the project delay earlier this year, but at the same time ruled out the possibility of choosing European aircraft manufacturer Airbus as an alternative. At the same time, Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg had said that Elon Musk, as a presidential advisor, is assisting the company in dealing with the matters related to the delivery of the presidential aircraft.

Interestingly, in May this year, the U.S. government also received a luxury 747 gifted by Qatar and asked the Air Force to upgrade it as a temporarily usable "Air Force One" as soon as possible. This modification task was assigned to the U.S. defense contractor L3Harris Technologies, and perhaps the Air Force might use the "borrowed luxurious car" temporarily.

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Original: toutiao.com/article/7583171961757401635/

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