The $400M Boeing 747 gifted to the US by Qatar must pass this brutal final test before it can fly for first time as Air Force One

The Boeing 747 gifted to the US by Qatar is almost ready to serve as ‘Bridge’ Air Force One.

To their credit, the US Air Force and contractor L3Harris were phenomenally fast.

It only took 10 months to convert this aircraft from a ‘regular’ state Boeing to an Air Force One-level fortress.

While the transformation is complete, it still needs to undergo one brutal final test.

Why the new Boeing 747 ‘Bridge’ Air Force One is such a big deal

Not long ago, Qatar gave the US a free Boeing 747, which was certainly a nice gesture.

Some people get ties or socks, the US got a Boeing 747.

The US accepted the gift precisely because the official Air Force One replacement program – the VC-25B – had been plagued by massive delays and skyrocketing costs.

The US Air Force is currently flying two aging Boeing 747s for presidential travel, but at nearly 40 years old, maintaining them has become incredibly expensive.

For this reason, Qatar’s gift came in handy, and the timing was great.

In less than a year, the US Air Force and L3Harris in Texas managed to tear the plane apart and build it back together with Air Force One-grade security features.

The ‘final exam’ is waiting

The aircraft – renamed ‘Bridge’ Air Force One – was fast-tracked through an intensive 10-month retrofitting process conducted by defense contractor L3Harris in Texas, and they did an amazing job.

Technicians completely swept the plane piece-by-piece to neutralize any bugs or foreign surveillance vulnerabilities before upgrading it with military-grade secure communications and new GE engines.

Interestingly, to save time and money, the structural layout of the interior was left largely intact, with only minor aesthetic upgrades and new signs in English to replace those written in Arabic.

Obviously, they also gave it a new livery with four colors: white, dark navy blue, red, and gold.

The fuselage also features prominent ‘United States of America’ lettering, a massive American flag on the tail, and the presidential seal near the door.

POTUS has already formally unveiled the aircraft at Joint Base Andrews, but it still has to pass the ‘final exam.’

By which we mean several exams.

First, the US Secret Service and the Air Force will quadruple-check its security protocols; second, they’ll test the reliability of secure communications; and three, they’ll need to prepare the ecosystem that runs Air Force One.

If everything goes to plan, the plane will take off soon and remain in service until at least 2028.

Timeline of Air Force One

1943: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first sitting President to fly as he takes a Boeing 314 out to Casablanca

1945: A Douglas C-54 is commissioned as the first aircraft built for presidential use, featuring an elevator to accommodate Roosevelt’s wheelchair

1953: The call sign ‘Air Force One’ is created for the first time

1959: Dwight Eisenhower flies in the first jet-powered presidential aircraft, a modified Boeing 707

1962: A Boeing 707 VC-137C becomes the first plane specifically designed to be a ‘Presidential Jet’

1987: Ronald Reagan orders two Boeing 747s to replace the 707 fleet

1990: First Boeing 747-200B delivered to George H.W. Bush

2018: Donald Trump begins the process of the replacing the fleet with two new Boeing 747-8 planes

2023: The proposed dark-red-and-blue color scheme is rejected over thermal engineering concerns

2028: Expected delivery date for the fully customized VC-25B aircraft to be delivered