Elon Musk is lending Boeing a hand with delivering President Donald Trump‘s new Air Force One, but time is running out for it to arrive before the end of his second term.
Boeing had been commissioned to deliver a new presidential plane by 2024, but its timeline for a new model has reportedly been stretched to as far as 2029, by which time Trump will be out of office.
Newsweek has contacted Boeing for comment.
Why It Matters
Every president since Dwight Eisenhower has flown in an aircraft with the call sign Air Force One and it is the president’s preferred mode of travel both domestically and internationally. However, the current models have been in use since the 1990s and replacements are due. The delivery will be a test of both Boeing’s engineering and Musk’s ability to make things more efficient.
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What To Know
In 2018, the White House commissioned Boeing to deliver two new VC-25B models to serve as the new Air Force One. During Trump’s first presidency, this deal was renegotiated so that costs would not exceed $4 billion.
Initially slated for delivery by December 2024, the new models have since been pushed back to 2028, with some reports indicating that they would only be in the air by 2029, by which time Trump’s successor will be president.
Trump’s new administration has repeatedly said that it is unhappy with these delays. Last month, Trump himself toured a Boeing 747-8 to express his anger over the timeline, with White House communications manager Steven Cheung saying: “President Trump is touring a new Boeing plane to check out the new hardware and technology. This highlights the project’s failure to deliver a new Air Force One on time as promised.”
Enter Musk, who has become the Trump administration’s first port of call for increasing efficiency and cutting waste via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already made major cuts to U.S. foreign spending.
In January, it was announced that Musk would be working with Boeing to speed up the delivery process, and that DOGE was making significant changes to how the project was being approached.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told reporters: “The president wants those planes sooner so we’re working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs.
“They sincerely are looking at things in the contract or in the process that are slowing us down that are not providing value.”
What People Are Saying
On February 19, President Donald Trump remained critical of Boeing’s delivery, saying: “I’m not happy with Boeing. We’re looking at alternatives because it’s taking Boeing too long.”
Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg said on February 20: “Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot, in working through the requirements on the VC-25, to try to help us get… non-value-added constraints out of the way, so that we can move faster and get those airplanes delivered.”
What Happens Next
An exact timeline for the new Air Force One has not been outlined.
In order for Trump to make use of it, it would need to be delivered and functional by 2028, as he leaves office in January 2029.
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