Air Force One will be painted red, white, blue as Trump hinted, US military says

WASHINGTON: A red, white and blue colour scheme championed by President Donald Trump will become the new look for Air Force One, the US military said Thursday.

The Air Force said a "red, white, gold and dark blue paint scheme" will be used for the updated jet that is slated to serve as Air Force One as well as other, smaller jets that routinely fly other top government officials.

The military released a rendering of the new look that matches an airplane model that has been seen in the Oval Office for meetings with foreign leaders.

Boeing is in the process of modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that are slated to replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft that the president currently uses and that take on the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard.

In 2018, Trump directed that those new jets would ditch the iconic Kennedy-era blue-and-white design for a white-and-navy colour scheme. Instead, the top half of the plane would have been white, while the bottom, including the belly, would have been dark blue. A streak of dark red would have run from the cockpit to the tail. The colouring was almost identical to the exterior of Trump's personal plane.

An Air Force review had suggested the darker colors would increase costs and delay delivery of the new jumbo jets, and President Joe Biden reversed the decision in March 2023.

Trump told reporters last month that "we want power blue, not baby blue," referring to the current colour of the aircraft.

"Everything has its time and place. We'll be changing the colors," Trump added.

The Air Force's statement says a third 747-8i Boeing jet will be painted in the same colours.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar last May for use as Air Force One despite questions about the ethics and legality of taking the expensive gift from a foreign nation.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers last June that the security modifications to the jet would cost less than USD 400 million but provided no details.