Trump Desperate To Fly On New Air Force One

Elon Musk notoriously promised self-driving cars for over a decade without actually delivering a fully autonomous system. Now, the Tesla CEO is promising the President of the United States that he can deliver the new Air Force One in only a year. This is an outlandish guarantee, considering that the pair of Boeing 747-based jets are expected to be delivered in four years.

President Trump placed the $3.9 billion order with Boeing in 2018 during his first term in office. It was envisioned that Trump would fly on the plane during the final year of his second term. However, two things unexpectedly changed. Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, and the aerospace giant couldn't deliver the plane on time. The delays happened despite the White House choosing the quicker option of converting existing airframes. The planes were initially built for Transaero, but the Russian airline went bankrupt in 2015.

Musk gave the same copy-paste criticism of the Air Force One order that he spouts towards any engineering project, the New York Times reports. He claimed that the aircraft intended to survive the envisioned nuclear apocalypse of World War III was over-engineered and didn't need all the required test flights. Boeing has struggled to convert the jumbo jet's interior, especially fitting the wiring systems. Workers able to receive the necessary top-secret clearance have been difficult for the planemaker to find. Musk advised the Trump administration to lower the security clearance needs to work on Air Force One. That advice comes with a conflict of interest. The South African-born executive can't receive security clearance for all of SpaceX's projects because of his alleged drug use.

The most extreme alternative proposed is converting a Boeing 747 previously owned by the Qatari royal family to temporarily serve as Air Force One. The aircraft was spotted at Palm Beach International Airport near Mar-a-Lago. This is a ridiculous idea because it hinges on the idea that Trump could hastily assemble a team to do the same task Boeing is struggling with in a fraction of the time. No matter what happens next, just be glad we won't ever see that gaudy red, white, blue and gold paint job that Trump originally wanted.