President Donald Trump’s Middle East tour began on a lavishly controversial note with a $400million jumbo jet gift from Qatar.
The Qatari royal family has offered Trump a luxurious Boeing 747-8 to use as the new Air Force One, which is the president’s official mode of air transportation.
Trump has embraced the idea of the gift – and drawn vehement opposition from Democrats and Republicans alike, who have likened it to a bribe and called it a threat to national security.
Despite loud calls for him to reject the gift, Trump has argued in favor of the jet, which he could use until the end of his second presidential term before seeing it donated to his presidential library.
Trump on Monday went so far as saying that it would be ‘stupid’ to pass up the offer.
‘I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar. I appreciate it very much. I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,’ said Trump at the White House on Monday before taking off to the Middle East.
‘I mean, I could be a stupid person saying, “No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.”‘
The Qatari plane would join the aging Air Force One fleet, which currently includes two 747-200 jets that have been flying since 1990, and a few smaller 747s .
Everything to know about Air Force One
Air Force One is part of the US Air Force. It is technically a radio call for the president being on board, but broadly refers to aircraft used by the president to travel domestically and abroad.
Currently, two identical identical Boeing 747-200B jets with the tail numbers 28000 and 29000 and the Air Force designation VC-25A are in service.
They are equipped with classified defense and security systems and designed to protect electronics inside the plane against a nuclear explosion’s electromagnetic pulse.
Both jets were supposed to be replaced with three new aircraft from 2017 to 2021, but delays in producing new VC-25Bs have pushed the timeline to 2027 or beyond.
The history of Air Force One
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first US president to fly while serving. He took a commercial Boeing 314 Clipper to the Casablanca Conference in Morocco in January 1943 during World War II, according to Britannica.
The next aircraft was a four-engine Douglas C-54C Skymaster constructed specifically for presidential use. It could land in any sizable airfield globally unlike the Clipper, and had a 4,000-mile range. It had a conference room, a stateroom with a bulletproof picture window and an elevator. It transported Roosevelt once and served Harry Truman during his first presidential term.
For the rest of his time in office, Truman flew on a modified Douglas C-118 Liftmaster, which had new pressurized cabins and could accommodate two dozen passengers outside of the stateroom.
Dwight D Eisenhower had a custom C-121 which was a militarized version of the Lockheed Constellation airliner, but he was also the first president to fly in the jet era of Air Force One. Eisenhower flew on a Boeing 707 Stratoliner that had 40 passenger seats, a conference room, stateroom and a telecommunications area.
John F Kennedy received the first jet constructed specifically for a president and it was a Boeing 707 with the designation VC-137C. It became a symbol of presidential power and prestige, and forged the image of Air Force One. The jet had ‘United States of America’ on the fuselage and a blue-and-white colour scheme that was adopted as the official look of Air Force One.
The Boeing 707 was used from 1962 to 1990 by Kennedy and presidents Lyndon B Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton. It continued to be used as a backup through 1998.
It was replaced by the Boeing 747, which was used beginning in 1990 and served Bush senior, Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, Trump and Joe Biden.
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