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Top White House officials on Thursday morning bade farewell to a jet that has carried U.S. presidents around the world for 35 years, as the Trump administration prepares to replace it with a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to serve as Air Force One.
As President Donald Trump and his staff returned from France after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, White House communications director Steven Cheung and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted photos of one of the highly customized, heavily fortifie
d Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that are called Air Force One when carrying the president. "Well done, good and faithful servant," Cheung wrote on X, captioning the photo as "The Last Ride."
The White House did not immediately comment on the transition, but the Air Force announced last month that the Qatari jet had completed modification and flight testing.
It is not yet clear, however, whether the new Air Force One will be cleared to fly the president on overseas trips. In a statement to The Washington Post, the Air Force said that "the Presidential Airlift Group will select the appropriate aircraft for each mission based on operational requirements."
"We coordinated closely with appropriate government entities to ensure all functional mission requirements were strictly met for transporting the President," the Air Force said.
The Pentagon and its contractor, L3Harris, moved on an accelerated schedule to refurbish the plane in order to meet Trump's desire for a new aircraft.
In early June, Texas-based aviation photographer Travis Ghormley captured a nighttime photo of the replacement aircraft in Waco in its new dark blue, red, gold and white livery; the plane had been in Waco for repainting after L3Harris completed other refurbishment work in Texas.
While the exterior appearance of the jet is completely new, the Air Force did not modify the luxury interior, keeping the leather lounge areas designed for the Qatari royal family, instead of giving the plane the more office-and-workspace-oriented design of the current Air Force One, two U.S. officials said.
In its statement, the Air Force said that "by making minimal changes to the previous head-of-state interior" the service was able to field the aircraft faster and retain the security features required.
The interior design of the plane was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
For months, L3Harris has overhauled the jet, but the Air Force has released very few details about the aircraft, saying that almost all of the information is classified. L3Harris declined to comment on work it has performed on the aircraft.
The Qatari plane is a "bridge" program to satisfy Trump, who has grown frustrated with production delays and cost growth as Boeing has worked to retrofit two other 747s to serve as the new Air Force One. The Air Force awarded the contract to purchase two 747s for Boeing to retrofit in 2017, during Trump's first term in office.
The schedule on those planes has slipped to the point that they may not be ready before the end of Trump's second term. So instead, the Pentagon accepted the Qatari jet and worked to get it ready for this summer, at a cheaper price tag.
In May, when Pentagon officials told lawmakers that the total cost to overhaul the plane had not exceeded $400 million, lawmakers questioned why the cost to overhaul the two other jets was so much more - and whether that meant the new plane would not be as capable as the planned future aircraft. The Government Accountability Office has estimated that the costs to get the two other 747s operational now exceed $5.6 billion.
A few of the modifications that were not made to save money included not widening the lower front door of the aircraft or its rear access door, "which will eventually be needed on the final aircraft to accommodate a presidential casket," the Air Force said.
The service also did not make some interior changes to adjust the floors of the aircraft for height requirements, or include multiple sets of air stairs for arrival or departure, the service said.
The transition will cap more than a year of controversy as Democrats and some Republicans criticized the highly unusual arrangement with Qatar, which has raised ethical, legal and national security concerns.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accepted the $400 million jet as an unconditional "donation" to the Defense Department, which is responsible for its maintenance.
Democrats have derided the donation as a bribe and raised concerns about taxpayer funds being used to secure and update a plane that will only be used for the remainder of Trump's term. The plane is expected to be gifted to Trump's presidential library at the end of his tenure. The president has released AI-generated renderings of the library project that include a large jet displayed in its lobby.
It was not immediately clear where Trump would travel on his first flight in the new plane. Trump is considering attending a fireworks display at Mount Rushmore in early July in celebration of the 250th anniversary of America's founding, but the trip has not yet been finalized, according to a senior administration official.
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