Boeing wins $600 million contract for preliminary design of next generation presidential aircraft
14 Sep 2017
Boeing Co has bagged a nearly $600-million contract from the US Air Force to start preliminary design work on the next generation of presidential aircraft.
Under the contract awarded on Tuesday, the Chicago-based company will create an initial design incorporating a mission control system, a medical facility, electrical power upgrades, a self-defence system and autonomous ground operations capabilities into two existing commercial 747-8 planes that will serve as the next Air Force One aircraft.
The new Air Force One planes will replace the VC-25A aircraft that serve as presidential planes, since President George H W Bush's administration in 1990.
Boeing said in a statement that the contract represented a ''great step forward on the next Air Force One.''
The $600-million award is only a part of Air Force One contracts. On completion of the initial design, the Air Force is expected to award another contract modification next summer involving more detailed design, actual modification of the aircraft, tests and delivery of the planes. The jets may be in operation by 2024.
The development comes after the company won a contract last month to sell the two commercial planes to the Air Force. According to a Boeing spokeswoman, at the time the aircraft were sold to the Air Force ''at a substantial discount from the company's existing inventory.''
According to commentators, the contract marked a progression on the type of modification work that was being done at the company's Wichita plant, prior to its closure of its local defence facility in 2014.
Similar work had brought the earlier Air Force One aircraft to Wichita, but that work was moved to San Antonio and the Wichita plant was shuttered.
But the city retains production ties to the programme, as Wichita-based Spirit AeroSystems Inc builds components of the 747-8s being used as the Air Force One platform.
