After weeks of grainy planespotting images President Donald Trump unveiled his new ride in a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews on Friday. The Boeing 747-8 that was given to the Air Force by the Qatar Royal Family and loaded up with security and communications gear by L3 Harris in Texas was rolled out for all to see, with its controversial livery change seen in good light for the first time publicly. The livery resembles that of the model 747 in the Oval Office, which was picked by Trump to replace the robin’s egg blue of the VC-25A that has carried presidents for the past 30 years. This aircraft is designated VC-25B for Bridge since it’s an interim replacement for the current aircraft while permanent replacements are built by Boeing.
The plane was valued at $400 million when Qatar had it on the market and couldn’t find a buyer. It was eight years old when the royal family got two new replacements in 2023. They were among the last passenger 747s made by Boeing. The opulence of the so-called “Flying Palace” has reportedly been retained in the Bridge version and Trump acknowledged that. “This is considered the world’s most luxurious plane,” Trump said at the ceremony. “When it was built, it was built at a level that will probably never be seen again.” There has been little public discussion of the types of modifications made. The mods were estimated at $1 billion when the Air Force took possession and that figure has not been updated. The plane may be in service for only two or three years until Boeing delivers the official Air Force One replacements.
It certainly looks classy. A nice departure from some of the modern paint schemes that sometimes resemble thrown paint or young children’s ramblings.
In this particular case, I do agree. Nice paintjob. “Rambling Child Inside” stickers are available on Amazon.
I don’t hate it. Looks pretty sharp. Not a huge fan of the waving flag on the vertical stabilizer though. Prefer a more square presentation. Best solution would be the interwar army air corps. 13 red and white stripes on the tail.
A non-waving flag and painting the nacelles matching blue would be a big upgrade. The waving flag looks like 1996 MS Word clip art. Even with those changes, it still looks like generic late ’90s/early /’00s airline livery, maybe for US Airways or TWA, but not offensively bad.
Arrogance dressed up as exceptionalism, an unfortunate departure from the classy, soft, ever so slightly understated traditional Air Force One livery. A gaudy overstated representation of brute force rather than skilled diplomacy which reflects the failed M O of the principal passenger. A flying all caps text.
“I asked the emir if we could use the brand new 747,” Trump said while recounting how he secured the aircraft from Qatar’s ruler. “See, a normal president wouldn’t do this.”
Oh, how right you are Donnie.
And dark blue – more easily seen from the ground against the upper sky. Not to mention the dark color grabs more heat from the Sun. The mind reels.
“And dark blue – more easily seen from the ground against the upper sky.”
How would the two compare at night? And didn’t Bush make his Turkey-day visit to Baghdad at night?
The lighter “air superiority blue” isn’t a daytime only paint. It has worked pretty well 24 hours a day for many years. Why make yourself a bigger, more easily identifiable target when you really don’t have to?
It’s kind of like when the Marines get sent somewhere versus Delta. We want the world to know.
“…the dark color grabs more heat from the Sun.”
Not sure how much time it’ll spend flying inverted.
Only a king needs a flying palace. Did they get the gold “throne” installed??
article doesn’t mention it’s reported that the Trump family keeps the plane after he’s out.
Is this a Facebook gripe/praise thread or a Aviation Site? Good Grief!
Agree. Posts with more than 3 downvotes should get canned. Let’s see how long this one lasts. haha
Normally I’d maybe agree, but I’m still trying to figure out what caused my earlier post to generate a net of six down votes – it seemed innocious to me.
Nonetheless, I’d rather see a heavier (than lighter) editorial hand in this forum when it comes to maintaining decorum. After all, it isn’t really a public space – it is somebody’s virtual hangar.
Without expressly revealing my leanings, I would just ask that management take a more active roll moderation. It’s a huge turn off when a simple post about the new AF1 livery turns into an “orange man” bad diatribe. The only reason I am on the mailing list for this website and regularly read the site is for the aviation content. If i wanted politics, I’ll go to bluesky or reddit. Political speech on an aviation site is just as bad as reading AI drivel.
when I was young, my father taught me to never discuss money, politics or religion in mixed company. At the time I never understood it, but I sure do now. I wish more folks could take the hint.
Not to be a snot, but your best bet is to read the articles and skip the comments. The simple fact is that no one to the right of Antonio Gramsci will get a fair shake at AvBrief.
Since your comment was not deleted…Antonio would be proud!
Brilliant response. Antonio and Karl Marx would have gladly taken your expensive flying toys away from you, because you don’t deserve them, but keep burning incense to them
I dispute that. Once a thread gets out of control I delete any comments that fueled the fire. But I do agree that the simple solution for sensitive readers is to simply ignore the comments. But the solution is not for us to avoid topics that might ignite the comment section. I’m amazed that folks think comments made by readers somehow determine our political stance, which we don’t have. Keep it about flying and airplanes.
You are doing a great job. I didn’t mean to impugn your efforts or policies for AVWeb.
I like to read the comments because sometimes there are nuggets of gold scattered amongst the chaff.
I find your amazement quite amazing, Russ, given the disparity in how discipline is dished out. I have read several pseudo-witty comments about the Epstein Files. How does that relate to aviation? But no reprimand. I have been lectured about how Native Americans have been oppressed because some guy suffered an engine failure and landed on a reservation, subsequently having his airplane impounded. How does what happened to Native Americans two-hundred years ago pertain to aviation? Again, no rebuke.
This is your playground, Russ, hence your rules. Freedom of speech doesn’t apply here, because this is a private venue. You are free to delete, promote, or admonish whomever you wish, but saying that there is no bias here is dishonest. That would be like calling Faux News neutral.
It was inevitably going to devolve into worthless political jibber jabber thanks to a few habitual offenders. Nuking all that nonsense now.
The paint scheme is far from unique, but I like it. Thankfully it is not painted gold. The Trump organization was worth about $2.4 billion in early 2024. Its estimated worth now is over $6 billion, an increase of over 200%. For some reason this didn’t correspond with the growth of the US GDP of only 6.6% over the same time period. Most presidents make their money before or after the presidency, Trump is making it during the presidency.
The thing that outrages me is that $1 billion of my and your tax dollars and (presumably) tons of secret equipment were wasted on this project, which is then to be gifted to Trump when he no longer holds public office. I suppose much of that equipment will need to be removed, again at taxpayer expense, before it’s handed over to him. I find this particularly galling when there is already a functional AF-1, and two brand new ones in the pipe a couple of years down the road.
And what’s he going to do with it when he’s out of office? He’ll use it for his personal transportation, and, I’d wager, will be slow to remove the Presidential Seal and “United States of America” from the paint scheme.
Personally, I don’t find the paint scheme offensive but, like you, it galls me to know that my tax dollars were spent on converting this “flying palace” into a secure aircraft for Presidential use just so Trump can have a plane worthy of his ego to hop down to his golf resort on weekends. And in a couple years, we will get saddled with millions more expense to remove all that stuff before it is turned over to the Trump family. The royal family of Qatar had been trying to sell the plane for several years, primarily due to the operating and upkeep costs of the plane. So, unless Trump can figure out a way to saddle the American taxpayers with its ongoing fuel and upkeep, I don’t see him paying for all that from his own pockets. I’m sure he has someone working on that right now too.
This paint scheme has the same colors and is the ~inverse of the paint scheme on Trump’s private 757.
He made it his private AF ONE to keep and travel on until he dies. At taxpayer expense, no matter that it was a gift from the Royal Family of Qatar. Side by side with his earlier 757.