There are actually TWO B-747’s being worked on….
They were built for a Russian Airline that never took them….
The present US Air Force B-747-200 Series jets are over 30 years old…..
They should probably just take the next two B-777 off the line at Boeing and repaint the outsides and go with that…
But knowing the process?
They probably couldn’t even do that…..
The delays , idiotic aircraft requirements, and cost for the aircraft , which just fly from one place to another like ANY other commercial airliner, is ridiculous…..
Cost overruns for the new Air Force One jets continue to pile on massive losses for Boeing.
Boeing on Wednesday reported another $482 million in red ink on the contract to retrofit two 747 jets into the next generation of the presidential plane. Boeing has now lost more than $1 billion on each of the two jets.
The company has been reporting losses on the planes for years, as CEO Dave Calhoun admitted last year that the company should never have signed the contract with the Air Force to produce the jets for $3.9 billion. Supplier costs have soared since then, and the delivery date has been continually pushed back. Boeing took $1.45 billion in losses on the planes last year, and $318 million in 2021….
…
The company said the latest loss on the program is a result of engineering changes, labor instability, as well as the resolution of negotiations with one of its suppliers.
Very often higher costs on defense contracts can be passed onto US taxpayers, but under pressure from then-President Donald Trump, who was threatening to cancel the contract for the planes, Boeing agreed to a fixed price contract on the two new jets.
“In a fixed price environment, any unplanned hurdles can introduce unrecoverable costs,” Calhoun told investors Wednesday. “At the end of the day, we have two airplanes to build. We’re getting past these hurdles and are committed to delivering two exceptional airplanes for our customer.”
Technically the program is known as the VC-25B, since the famous “Air Force One” designation is reserved for when the president is actually on any US Air Force-operated plane, not when it is on the ground, let alone under construction….
image….Reddit