New Air Force One will stay blue and white, Biden decides
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is sticking with blue and white for the exterior of the replacement Air Force One aircraft, the first of which is expected to be delivered in four years.
The Air Force said late Friday that the light blue on the new model of the modified 747s that transport the president will be a little bit deeper and more modern in tone than the robin’s egg blue on the versions of the aircraft in use.
Boeing is modifying two of its 747-800 aircraft that will use the Air Force One call sign when the president is aboard.
They will replace the existing fleet of two aging Boeing 747-200 aircraft the president uses.
The choice of the plane’s exterior colors follows an earlier decision by the administration to scrap a red-white-and-blue design favored by Donald Trump, Biden’s predecessor. An Air Force review had suggested the darker colors would increase costs and delay delivery.
In 2018, Trump directed that the new jets shed the iconic Kennedy-era blueand-white design for a white-and-navy color scheme. The top half of the plane would have been white and 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 coloring was almost identical to the exterior of Trump’s personal plane.
Delivery of the first of the new airplanes is projected for 2027, followed by the second aircraft in 2028, the Air Force said.
The current generation of planes first carried President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989-93.