The China Mail - 'Last ride': US says goodbye to Air Force One as Qatari jet awaits

White House officials bade farewell on Thursday to one of the two jets that have been used to transport US presidents for more than 30 years.

The goodbye messages fueled speculation that a Boeing 747 controversially gifted to President Donald Trump by the Gulf emirate of Qatar is now due to enter service.

"'Well done, good and faithful servant. 'The Last Ride,'" Trump's communications director Steven Cheung said in a post on X with a picture of the iconic white and blue jet after returning from the G7 summit in France.

US Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley also posted a photograph of the same plane on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

"I was honored to be aboard Air Force One last night on its final flight," Crowley said on X.

"For nearly 40 years, it carried every President since George H.W. Bush. It wasn't the most modern plane, but it was cozy. And every flight with President Trump was incredibly special.

"Farewell and thank you."

The aging aircraft is one of two heavily modified 747s -- VC-25As in military parlance -- that entered service in 1990 and are designated Air Force One when the president is aboard.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked by AFP to comment.

But Trump is considering taking the new Qatari jet on its inaugural flight when he travels to Mount Rushmore next month as part of celebrations for America's 250th anniversary, NBC News reported.

The US Air Force said in May that the Qatari jet had completed flight testing and would soon be ready for action, adding that it was "on schedule to roll out in a new red, white and blue livery this summer."

On Thursday the US Air Force confirmed to AFP that the Qatari plane, known as the VC-25B Bridge aircraft, "will soon join the active executive airlift fleet alongside the VC-25A and C-32."

The C-32, dubbed "Baby Air Force One," is a version of the smaller 757 used for shorter runways.

Qatar's gift of the jet, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, has raised major ethical and constitutional issues about what kind of gifts a president should receive from abroad.

It has also raised security concerns about using an aircraft donated by a foreign power for use as the ultra-sensitive presidential plane.

The jets that serve as Air Force One are widely reported to have sophisticated countermeasures that can jam enemy radars and infrared tracking systems, plus dispensers for chaff -- metal shavings that distract radar-guided missiles -- and flares that blind heat-seeking missiles.

But billionaire Trump has been obsessed with replacing Air Force One since his first presidential term, even keeping a model of the jet in its new color scheme on his coffee table in the Oval Office.

Trump said last year that it would be "stupid" not to accept the gift, which the Pentagon formally acquired last year, and complained about the state of the current veteran planes.

He has said the Qatari plane will eventually be donated to his future presidential library as an exhibit.

The US government has also contracted planemaker Boeing to deliver two new 747-8 aircraft to serve as the presidential jet but the program has suffered delays and cost overruns.

U.Feng--ThChM