The real story about the Qatar gifting us an AF1:
President Trump is done waiting for Boeing.
Frustrated by delays on Boeing’s work to deliver a new Air Force One, Trump has commissioned a smaller defense contractor to ready an interim presidential plane by year’s end, said people with knowledge of the situation.
Boeing will continue plugging away on a pair of Air Force One replacement jets, which have fallen so far behind that Trump might not get to fly on them while in office.
The U.S. government has commissioned L3Harris to overhaul a Boeing 747 formerly used by the Qatari government. The Melbourne, Fla.-based company is tasked with retrofitting the plane with certain specialized systems to transform the luxury aircraft into a presidential jet, some of the people said.
[snip]
In his first term, Trump commissioned two new presidential planes to replace a pair of aging jets, which are among the world’s most complex aircraft with communications and defensive systems that serve as a command and control platform for the commander in chief. Boeing won the $3.9 billion contract and at one point was expected to have the planes ready by last year. But it is now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, after a series of supplier, engineering and manufacturing setbacks.
