The next presidential jets are still years away, but the Air Force is quietly bulking up its training fleet in the meantime. The service says it will spend about $400 million to buy two used Boeing 747-8 aircraft from German airline Lufthansa to support its future presidential airlift program. The wide-body jets will not be the heavily modified Air Force One replacements themselves, but will be used for training and spare parts as the military transitions away from its aging 747-200 fleet first introduced in 1990. The first Lufthansa plane is expected to arrive early next year, with the second due by the end of the year, CNN reports.
Because Boeing has stopped producing passenger versions of the 747-8, the Air Force says securing these aircraft now is key to building a long-term strategy for maintaining and operating the coming VC-25B fleet, the official designation for the next Air Force One jets. Boeing's main replacement contract—now valued at more than $4.3 billion after a December modification—is running years behind schedule. An Air Force spokesperson said the latest contract changes are tied largely to adding upgraded communications so the future VC-25B can meet evolving mission needs.
The first of the two new presidential aircraft is now projected to be delivered in mid-2028, far past the original 2022 target. The jets are still undergoing modification work in San Antonio. Under the current timeline, President Trump will have a new plane in his last year in office, but he has been pushing to get one faster, complaining that he is still "flying around in the same aging planes that once transported President George HW Bush," the San Antonio Express-News reports. Separately, Trump has touted plans to use a Qatari-donated jet as Air Force One as soon as February, a claim met with strong doubts from aviation experts. They say 2028 is a more realistic deadline for modification work that could cost around $1 billion.
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