At least three years behind schedule for the shipment of two fresh Air Force One aircraft, prompting President Donald Trump to get Elon Musk‘s advice on how to get Boeing to finish the project.
Trump and Musk discussed their frustrations with Boeing, which won’t give the White House the two aircraft models until Trump’s term is over until he leaves office, in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.  ,
” I mean, they are really in definition, Boeing”, Trump said. ” They’ve been building this thing long. I don’t know what’s going on”.
The Air Force contracted Boeing to provide the aircraft in 2018, with the assumption that they would be delivered by 2024.
However, a combination of factors, such as a worker shortage during the pandemic and one of Boeing’s major suppliers falling behind schedule, pushed the project to a completion date of 2028 and forced Boeing to incur$ 2.4 billion in losses on the$ 4.3 billion contract. Boeing has already agreed to pay the Air Force$ 3.5 billion under contract.  ,
Trump and Trump pushed for loosening the safety certification requirements for some of the plan’s employees in an effort to speed up the process.  ,
Since November, the couple has been talking about how to speed things up with Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg.
In a late last month CNBC meeting, Ortberg stated that” the president wants the aircraft sooner, and therefore we’re working with Elon and the team to figure out what we can do to change that aircraft’s schedule.”
Musk went to a Boeing plant in San Antonio in December to look for ways to get the aircraft delivered early.
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Trump has been conducting a public search for a fresh plane since Saturday when he toured a Boeing 747 parked at West Palm Beach International Airport.
However, even if Trump were to acquire this plane, a 747-8 that sells for about$ 400 million, it could still take several years to issue the plane to code to serve as Air Force One, two former Pentagon officials told the New York Times.
