Trump Administration officially accepts Jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One: NPR

The United States officially accepted a luxury jetliner from Boeing 747-8 as a gift from the Qatar government, and the Air Force was equipped as a new aircraft for President Trump, according to a spokesman for the Air Force.

The spokesman, who spoke on the condition of the anonymity, since they were not entitled to speak publicly about the matter, said NPR that the Air Force “is currently preparing to award a contract to change a Boeing 747 aircraft for an air bridge”, and the inscription “Further details about the contract” are classified.

The plane – worth hundreds of millions of dollars – is a gift that Trump said that he was “stupid” to reject it, which indicates that it could be quickly converted to be ready as a presidential aircraft.

However, experts warn that it would take years to meet the current standards for Air Force One, no matter how luxurious the plane is.

Democratic legislators and independent guard dogs say that the gift violates the constitution abroad.

The White House said that the plane was a gift to the Ministry of Defense and would go through the legal protocols that are necessary if the government is given something. Trump said he would not use it after leaving the office and would like to keep it in his presidential library at that time.

Two new Boeing 747-8 aircraft are currently being adapted to the next generation of Air Force One. Trump announced a contract of 3.9 billion US dollars with Boeing during his first term for the project. The planes should be ready by last year, but the project has been impaired by setbacks, and now the individual aircraft is not expected for a few years.

“Some of this is due to a poor execution. However, part of it is only due to the enormous amount of requirements and work that is necessary to absorb a commercial jet and wire it” for the extensive safety measurements standard in Air Force One aircraft. Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aerodynamic advice and aviation analyst, spoke to NPRS Morning edition.

He called Trump's plan that the catar aircraft was quickly converted as a “imagination”.

The current Air Force One fleet has been used for over three decades

Technically speaking, “Air Force One” is the call signal for every airplane that bears the President of the United States. Overall, however, it is used to refer to the specific special aircraft of Boeing 747-200B models with state-of-the-art communication and defense systems, together with many other (often high-class) functions.

The two Boeing aircraft that currently serve as Air Force One have been in operation since 1990. A plan to replace it has been in the works for years. Boeing won the contract in 2016 under the then President Obama.

“It's a mobile white house,” says Doug Birkey, Managing Director of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “All functions of the president must be carried out in this, regardless of the circumstances, including warfare.”

According to Birkey, this includes that an “incredibly robust command and control suite” and defense against everything from surface-air rockets to nuclear explosions and warfare is required.

He says in relation to luxury, the aircraft from Qatar probably looks better and feels better than the current or planned Luftwaffen -Ain aircraft – but it is unlikely that it has one of the required communication or defense systems.

“And installing is not an easy thing. I think you have to deconstruct the plane,” says Birkey.

Trump has repeatedly emphasized that the aircraft was free, but several experts, the NPR, agreed that it would probably cost a significant amount of money – up to one billion dollars according to Aboulafia's estimate – to properly equip it according to current standards in order to become an Air Force One.

A US official who applied for anonymity because they were not justified to speak publicly about the matter, said NPR that the conversion would probably cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Tom Bowman from NPR contributed to this report.