President Joe Biden’s administration has scrapped former President Donald Trump’s red, white and blue design for the new generation of presidential aircraft after an Air Force review suggested it would raise costs and delay the delivery of the new jets.
Boeing is currently modifying two Boeing 747-800 aircraft that will bear the Air Force One callsign when the president is onboard to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft. Trump, in 2018, directed that the new jumbo jets shed the iconic Kennedy-era robin’s egg blue and white design for a deeper navy and streak of dark red.
The Trump paint scheme is not being considered because it could drive additional engineering, time and cost, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the program.
Politico first reported that the Air Force study of the new paint job had concluded that the dark shade of blue Trump proposed for the plane’s underbelly and engines would have created heating issues for the aircraft, requiring costly redesigns and additional delays to the already behind-schedule program. The current generation of planes first carried President George H.W. Bush.
