In December 2016, Donald Trump, who had not yet moved into the White House, protested the astronomical cost of a new Air Force One presidential plane.
“The costs are out of control, more than $4 billion,” he tweeted. “We have to cancel that order!” He exclaimed.
An agreement was finally reached to cut the cost to 3.9 billion, but that price was not closed, and there were extras that are proving to be unique: only the flight and operations manual of the new Air Force One, for example, will cost 84 million dollars.
This manual should be completed in January 2025, and will include more than 100,000 pages with the complete specifications of the aircraft, as well as its instructions for piloting it and for carrying out all kinds of maintenance and repair operations.
The aircraft is a Boeing VC-25B, a derivative version of the Boeing 747 that is precisely designed for presidential travel and is operated by United States Air Force (USAF) personnel.
The previous models (VC-25A) will cease to be used when the new models are prepared in 2024 according to estimates, but the costs of which Donald Trump complained so much are soaring.
To the initial $3.9 billion is added, for example, $1.4 billion to build a new hangar at the Andrews base, near Washington, DC, and although the instruction manual is a lower cost in comparison, its cost certainly seems exorbitant to be an instruction manual, however extensive it may be.
Still, the modified version of the Boeing 747 has important changes that certainly affect its interior, but also its communications office, which, for example, makes it necessary to include twice as much electrical wiring as most Boeing commercial aircraft.
The United States Air Force has already begun work on the two 747-8s that will end up being converted into the new Air Force One, but the price paid for these aircraft has not been indicated .
Sources close to the project nonetheless indicate that the cost of the manual is not extraordinary : updates to the manual for P-8 Poseidon aircraft cost $31 million in 2018, for example.
Source: Xataka
