(Air Force Times) Backtalk: Don’t rush to replace Air Force One

[unhappycamper]

Don’t rush to replace Air Force One
By Robert F. Dorr

The Air Force recently invited interested contractors to submit basic information on how they would design and build the next Air Force One.

“Air Force One,” the radio call sign for an Air Force plane that has the president aboard, is also loosely used for the two VC-25As, or Boeing 747-200s, that have pulled presidential transportation duty since 1990.

As the author of the book “Air Force One,” and along with other writers and analysts of the aviation scene, I think a new “flying White House” is a luxury we don’t need, and the competition to build it would be an expensive farce.

The White House and the Air Force must explain why the president needs a new plane. After that, they must justify holding a competition when the world has only two manufacturers of large airplanes, Boeing and Airbus. Only one of those companies is American, and Congress won’t tolerate our president flying in an aircraft that was designed overseas.

It doesn’t help that our president got the wrong airplane to begin with. When the Air Force purchased the VC-25A in 1986, new airliners had two engines and two pilots. The Air Force wanted four-engine reliability and a larger flight crew. It could have gotten four engines — but just two pilots — with the Boeing 747-400, the advanced version of the 747 then in production. Instead, the service chose the older 747-200, which was being phased out.


Rest of article at: http://airforcetimes.com/community/opinion/airforce_backtalk_afone_020209/%2e

[liberal N proud]

1. I was shocked to hear that they were going to replace AF 1

I agree with the writer: "It simply isn’t possible that the president’s plane is being flown as many hours, or subjected to as many landings, as a 747-200 airliner of the same era"

And we only have one airplane manufacture in the US since they allowed Boeing to consume McDonnell Douglas, no monopoly there.


I think it is just the we want a new plane syndrome, just like a want a new car ever 4 years. Although I have held off 8 going on 9 years at this point.