Bush Takes His First Trip Aboard New Air Force One

President Bush selected a scheduled two-hour, 20-minute flight to Middle America today as his first voyage aboard the new and improved Air Force One--the most expensive transport jet ever produced.

Dubbed by some as a “flying Taj Mahal,” the modified 747 200B stands six stories high and is equipped with a bevy of high-tech wonders, such as a worldwide communications system and an anti-nuclear defense shield.

Bush, who served as a Navy combat pilot during World War II, eagerly climbed aboard the plane for the maiden trip to Topeka, Kan., where he addressed a GOP fund-raiser.

He then flew to Tallahassee, Fla., for another GOP fund-raiser. He is to make his first overseas trip on the plane Friday when he goes to Helsinki for a superpower summit with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The Boeing 747 is the first of two new “Air Force Ones” that will replace a pair of aging presidential Boeing 707s, one dating back to John F. Kennedy, the other to Richard Nixon. The second 747 is to come into service by next June.

Two years overdue and an estimated $365-million over budget, the 747s are the product of a 1986 “fixed-cost contract” of $240 million that soared by leaps and bounds.

“This aircraft will allow the President to travel the world while he also performs his duties,” said an Air Force spokesman, who rejected suggestions that the plane also provides plenty of opulence.

“This isn’t something for a king,” he said.

Maybe not. But it still has plenty of comforts.

Among them: a six-channel stereo, a television system that can simultaneously broadcast eight programs, a medical emergency room where surgery can be performed, two top-of-the-line kitchens and a presidential suite.