President’s Plane Still Missing but Due in Fall: A ‘Flying Taj Mahal’
The President’s new plane is still missing, but finally there is a firm arrival date.
Once George Bush climbs aboard, he will be able to stretch out in unprecedented airborne luxury.
The new Air Force One, sometimes described as “a flying Taj Mahal,” is to come on line Sept. 30 after flight testing is completed. It is the most expensive transport jet ever produced, and its backup twin is to be delivered nine months later.
The modified Boeing 747-200Bs, two years overdue and an estimated $365 million over budget, are the products of a 1986 “fixed-cost contract” of $249 million that soared by leaps and bounds and revisions.
Boeing, not the taxpayers, got stuck with all but $19 million of the added expenses, such as the cost of being forced to reroute 58 miles of wiring to guard against electromagnetic interference with a secure worldwide communications system.
The big birds, which stand six stories high, have plenty of high-tech hardware and frills.
Each plane comes with an anti-nuclear defense system, a six-channel stereo, a stateroom, 85 telephones, a television transmitter that can send eight programs at once, a medical emergency room where surgery could be performed and two top-of-the-line kitchens.
With refrigerator-freezers that can hold provisions for a crew of 23 and 70 passengers, the aircraft, which can be refueled in flight, will be equipped to stay aloft for days at a time.
“It should contain the best,” said Bonnie Newman, assistant to the president for management and administration. “It does support the President and the presidency. I think the people will understand.”
Design and construction of the four-engine jets at Boeing plants in Everett, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., became a complex and powerful drama that involved the Air Force, Secret Service, National Security Agency and even Barbara Bush’s office.
The most recent delay came last June, when Boeing had to make changes to meet Air Force fire safety demands in the belly of the planes, designed to hold 6,000 pounds of luggage that must all be accessible during flight.
Late last year, a 48-day strike at Boeing slowed some work, although no postponement was attributed to it.
In January, Boeing announced the new fall delivery date and began test flights in Wichita.
Boeing is proud of the aircraft, but sensitive to criticism. It would not give the final price, which sources estimate at more than $600 million, most of it forced down Boeing’s corporate throat.
“I’m not going to say a word about that,” said Boeing spokesman Dick Ziegler. “When the plane is done and delivered, it will be a fine product. We are proud to have the man flying in it.”
Aides say that Bush, a former Navy pilot, is anxious to ride in the new plane and isn’t a bit uncomfortable about being handed such an item of opulence. They point out, however, that Bush did not ask for a new plane.
Neither did his predecessor, Ronald Reagan.
The Air Force did.
Back in 1983, the Air Force began campaigning for replacements for the current Boeing 707s: No. 26000, on which Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in at Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, and No. 27000, first used in 1973 by Richard Nixon.
The Air Force complained that the planes had become antiquated and do not not meet the pollution and noise standards of some airports.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower first used a 707 in 1959. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to have his own plane, a propeller-powered Douglas C-54C nicknamed The Sacred Cow.
Since then Air Force One, whatever the make, has become America’s best known plane. A 1960s fictional thriller, “The President’s Plane is Missing,” was turned into a movie.
The new “Bush shuttle” was designed to meet the needs of a traveling president. It also seemed to be built with the idea that bigger is better.
Its wingspan and deck space are 195 feet and 4,000 square feet, respectively, compared to 145 feet and 1,260 square feet on its predecessor.
The presidential suite has two beds, a shower-bath and electrically controlled curtains. There is also an office with an executive-style desk, and divans to seat five.
The President’s party could meet in a dining-conference room to review secret documents stashed in the on-board safe, sit down to a gourmet meal or lean back and enjoy a movie.
The new plane can hold about twice as many people as the current one, and can squeeze in three more members of the traveling press, for a contingent of 14.
Staffers, crew, journalists and Secret Service guards will have at their disposal six lavatories. The President will have his very own powder room--with double sink.
Once the new birds arrive, they will nest together in a new hangar at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
