The 747 jumbo jet gifted to President Donald Trump from Qatar has arrived at Joint Base Andrews, sporting the new dark blue, red and gold paint scheme preferred by the president and needing to complete a few last flights before officially serving as Air Force One.
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Information on the jet’s arrival was closely held. The only tip that a transition was near occurred earlier this week when a senior White House official tweeted a goodbye and thank you to the older, light-blue and white Air Force One.
On Friday, Trump visited Andrews for an event that was billed as remarks to Air Force service members to get a private tour of the gifted aircraft, which Qatar offered shortly after Trump’s second term began. The aircraft was inside a closed hangar on base. A podium was set up near a banner that said “doing what they said can’t be done,” underneath the presidential seal on the new plane’s fuselage.
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The aircrews who will fly the president have been training on a mock-up and on other 747s as they waited for the security and communications modifications to the new plane to be completed. Now that the plane is at Andrews, they will begin initial commissioning flights of the aircraft, what the Air Force described in a statement as a “final exam” of the plane.
“Once these flights are successfully completed the aircraft is officially ‘commissioned’ into the active executive airlift fleet and becomes available for presidential missions,” the service said.
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This is a developing story and will be updated.
