The VIP-configured B747-8, which will probably be transformed into Air Pressure One, was photographed departing Alliance Fort Price en path to Waco.
On Aug. 8, the Boeing 747-8 N7478D, donated by Qatar to U.S. President Donald Trump, was photographed at Alliance Fort Price, Texas, departing southbound to Waco, Texas, most likely for the primary spherical of inspections and prep work by L3Harris Applied sciences, who’ve reportedly been contracted to transform the plane to the Air Pressure’s specs. The sighting tracks with latest reporting that the plane is already in Texas and that preliminary flooring plans for its refit have circulated amongst senior U.S. officers.
The airplane is a VIP-configured 747-8 that Qatar has agreed to switch as an “unconditional donation” to the U.S. Division of Protection below a memorandum of understanding signed July 7, 2025, by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatar’s deputy prime minister and protection minister, Soud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. The textual content, described by each retailers that obtained it, grants the Pentagon broad latitude to make use of the jet “in any method it deems acceptable” below U.S. regulation. It additionally features a clause stating that nothing within the MoU constitutes bribery or undue affect, a line clearly geared toward political scrutiny across the association.
Previously operated as a personal jet for the Qatari Royal Household, below the registration A7-HBJ, the plane was withdrawn from use in 2023 and ultimately given the non permanent registration P4-HBJ whereas a brand new operator was discovered.
As already reported right here at The Aviationist, Boeing, within the strategy of changing two 747-8s into VC-25Bs, initially meant to ship alternative plane by the mid 2020s. In February 2025, U.S. officers stated the VC-25Bs won’t enter service earlier than 2029, and could also be even later than that. 82-8000 and 92-9000, the 2 U.S. Air Pressure’s two VC-25As, have been delivered in 1990 and are bespoke derivatives of the 747-200 mannequin. By the point of their anticipated retirement, they are going to be round 40 to 45 years outdated.
Subsequently, the Qatar-donated “Jumbo Jet” would function Trump’s main Air Pressure One plane till the top of his time period in January 2029, when it will likely be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library.
As The Washington Put up first laid out on July 25, the deal was offered this spring as completed, then slowed whereas the Protection Division sought edits to the language. Finishing the paperwork would permit the Air Pressure to start the complete renovation, a job the Put up famous may run into the a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands and take important time, regardless of public statements from service leaders that the work may be saved below a 12 months. Lawmakers have pressed for extra element on value and schedule, and a few have questioned the authorized pathway for accepting and finally transferring the plane after the administration ends.
CBS Information reported on July 28 that preparations for the refit are already underway and that senior officers have reviewed inside schematics. The community additionally cited the signed MoU’s language on the donation and its lack of any specific reference to “Air Pressure One,” whereas confirming that the plane may be employed by the Pentagon because it sees match. That framing issues as a result of the Air Pressure should certify any platform used to hold the president, with work starting from safe communications and hardening to countermeasures, electromagnetic shielding and rigorous cyber testing. None of these objects are trivial on a wide-body airframe that started life as a personal head-of-state transport.
The funding path is one other flashpoint. In accordance with the Put up, the Pentagon intends to cowl near-term prices by shifting cash from the Sentinel ICBM program, filling the hole later by a broader protection appropriations package deal, an strategy that has drawn criticism from Democrats who argue the refit will crowd out different priorities. Air Pressure Secretary Troy Meink advised Congress the renovation would value “lower than $400 million,” a determine challenged by skeptics on Capitol Hill. CBS Information echoed each the “lower than $400 million” estimate and the plan to faucet Sentinel funds labeled “extra to want,” whereas noting the missile program’s well-documented overruns and delays.
From an aviation perspective, the airframe itself is the simple half; what seems to be harder is its “missionization.” Even a low-time, 13-year outdated 747-8 should be stripped, audited for international {hardware}, rewired and rebuilt round government-grade communications, defensive techniques and survivability options, then validated by flight check and certification. That’s exactly why latest administrations procured extremely modified 747-8s from Boeing by the VC-25B program, a path that has confirmed longer and costlier than initially deliberate. The donated jet is being positioned, no less than on paper, as a bridge answer till the VC-25B effort delivers an actual consequence, however each indication from each retailers is that the refit will probably be measured in lots of months and plenty of hundreds of thousands.
H/T to our contributor and good friend Victoria Fontana, for sending us the photograph of N7478D you will discover on this article.
