The White House says it has already begun retiring one of the ageing VC-25A “Air Force One” jets.
US defence contractor L3Harris has delivered the first VC-25B presidential transport jet after finishing the conversion of a Boeing 747-8I business jet.
L3Harris confirmed the milestone on 19 June, noting the work took 10 months to accomplish. The aircraft was gifted to the US government by the Qatari royal family — its previous owner — in May 2025. Work to upgrade the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) with the security and communications systems needed by the White House began shortly after.
“Through a trusted, fast-tracked partnership with the air force, we have proven that the US defence industrial base can move at maximum velocity when the mission demands it,” says Christopher Kubasik, chief executive of L3Harris.
After completing flight testing in May, the US Air Force says the new jet will soon be ready to assume responsibility for presidential transport. The service is undertaking what are known as commissioning flights on the aircraft before approving a final checkout.
The four-engined jet was turned over to the US Air Force at Joint Base Andrews, the Maryland air base home to the 89th Airlift Wing, which provides airlift services to the president, vice-president, members of the presidential cabinet and other senior government officials.
The unit’s missions include ensuring nuclear command and control, executive communications and continuity of government during crises. Amongst the 89th Wing’s aircraft are the two blue-and-white Boeing VC-25As that bear the designation “Air Force One” when carrying the president.
The air force says delivery of the new aircraft will relieve pressure on the ageing VC-25A fleet, which the service describes as suffering from extended “heavy maintenance cycles”.
With the delivery of the new L3Harris VC-25B aircraft, one of those VC-25As is already in the process of being retired, according to the White House. The jet, which is a heavily modified Boeing 747-200, made its final presidential flight this week, returning US President Donald Trump from the G7 Summit in France.
The L3Harris conversion has been designated the “VC-25B Bridge” to distinguish it from the original two VC-25Bs being produced by Boeing under a 2018 deal valued at $4 billion.
However, Boeing has struggled to make good on that contract, with the delivery schedule repeatedly slipping and Boeing racking up more than $1 billion in penalty charges on the programme. Boeing now says it will deliver its first VC-25B in 2028.
The delays and overruns attracted Trump’s personal ire, which led the Qatari government to offer its 747-8I BBJ to Trump as an interim solution. Trump’s acceptance of the jet raised substantial ethical concerns about potential violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution, which forbids American officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments.
Trump has previously said the jet will be donated to his future presidential library after he leaves office, raising even more questions. The Pentagon has not disclosed how much money was spent certifying the VC-25B Bridge for executive use.
Using a foreign-sourced aircraft also raised security concerns about safety and the potential for means of espionage to have been planted in the jet.
The USAF is dismissing any concerns on that front, saying the aircraft has met “rigorous security requirements” to ensure the president remains “safe, protected, and fully connected”.
“The VC-25B Bridge aircraft was modified under a disciplined engineering approach that prioritised these exact core capabilities above all else,” the service says.
Interestingly, the air force is offering up some details as to how the Qatari jet was converted so quickly by L3Harris.
The previous head of state interior layout used by the Qatari government was “minimally changed”, the USAF says.
While the service says “no risk was taken in security, safety or mission communications”, other “less commonly used mission sets” planned for the full VC-25B were also apparently eschewed. The air force does not specify what these were.
The service also says that an “elite group of interagency experts developed benchmark protocols to detect and, if necessary, neutralise potential technical hazards on the previously owned aircraft”.
No details have been provided as to whether any such hazards were found.
“The safety and security of the commander in chief is our highest priority,” says secretary of the air force Troy Meink. “From the beginning, we meticulously evaluated every requirement to accelerate delivery while maintaining the high standards expected of the presidential mission.”
Also of note is that the VC-25B Bridge jet carries a new livery, one that departs from the classic robin’s egg blue-and-white paint scheme that has been featured on successive Air Force One jets since John F Kennedy occupied the White House.
That livery was created by industrial designer Raymond Loewy in the 1960s and has been carried through until now.
Donald Trump personally selected the new livery during his first term, opting for a darker navy blue on the ventral portion of the fuselage, with red and gold stripes running the length of the aircraft’s body and white on top. The Biden administration, which both succeeded and preceded Trump, had sought to discard that livery.
The USAF says it began training pilots to fly the VC-25B design in October of last year using a leased Atlas Air 747-8F. Another 747-8I was subsequently purchased from Lufthansa to serve as a full-time training asset for the new crew.
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