Cancel the Contract

And award it to another manufacturer. Former President and current President-elect Donald Trump (R) has long wanted a better aircraft for Air Force One, correctly identifying the current iteration as woefully limited in capability and badly obsolescent. Boeing has long had the contract for Air Force Ones, and they have the current contract to build a new, fully capable model.

Boeing is badly failing at this, too, even as it continues to fail at producing commercial aircraft, it fails at producing vehicles that can reach the ISS and return safely, its moon rocket is over budget and behind schedule, and on and on.

The long-delayed [Air Force One replacement] project has fallen so far behind schedule that Boeing has told the Air Force that it expects to deliver the new jets after Trump leaves the White House, according to people familiar with the matter. That means the airplanes wouldn’t be ready until 2029 or later.

And:

Boeing has booked more than $2 billion of charges tied to the fixed-price contract, which has gone over budget and been troubled by production glitches and management issues.

The delay is startling given that Boeing isn’t building the planes from scratch. During Trump’s first term, Boeing started to overhaul two 747s that were built for a Russian airline that never took the jets.

Such sloth is wholly unacceptable. It’s time to cancel the Boeing contract altogether and award it to a reputable company that will take seriously the task of building and outfitting a modern, fully capable Air Force One aircraft. The delay associated with the changeover, even if it involves building a new airplane from scratch, won’t be materially different from the delay Boeing presently is inflicting. Does anyone really have any confidence that Boeing would deliver soon after 2029?