Air Force One replacement: First flight of new presidential plane delayed

The first flight of the VC-25B, the replacement aircraft of the Air Force One, has been delayed again for another 16 months, according to an Air Force spokesperson.

Boeing has revised the schedule with the first flight now set for March 2026.

The program is facing additional setbacks for two key objectives, compounding earlier delays.

The first delay involves ground-based subsystem testing, initially planned for last month, while the second concerns the aircraft’s first flight, previously expected this November, according to Bloomberg .

Boeing faces $2 billion loss on presidential aircraft program

However, the Air Force now anticipates the power-on step will be delayed until July 2025, with the first flight pushed to March 2026. Officials expected the program to be two to three years behind schedule under the revised 2022 timeline, which aimed for the first jet’s delivery by September 2026, allowing a year of schedule margin. The second jet was planned for delivery in February 2027, with a year of leeway, Breaking Defense reported .

Boeing is currently updating the program’s schedule, stated an Air Force spokesperson, which could lead to changes in the provided dates. The next schedule update is expected later this summer, and the spokesperson added that the impact on expected delivery dates remains unclear.

The aerospace company has suffered over $2 billion in losses on the presidential airlift recapitalization effort alone. Originally scheduled, the first airplane delivery was expected this year.

In addition to significant losses on programs such as the KC-46A refueling tanker, the VC-25B program exemplifies Boeing executives’ acknowledgment of problematic fixed-price agreements with the Pentagon.

The program’s contract, negotiated by former Chief Executive Officer Denis Muilenburg with then-President Donald Trump in 2018, has posed challenges for the company’s current leadership. Last year, Boeing officials acknowledged the VC-25B program represented “a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken.”

“Air Force One, I’m just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation, a very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken. But we are where we are, and we’re going to deliver great airplanes. And we’re going to recognize the costs associated with it,” Boeing’s CEO Dave Calhoun told investors during an earnings calls.

Military jet conversion faces setbacks due to supply chain issues

Issues such as workforce disruptions prompted a schedule revision for the extensive effort to convert two commercial 747s for military use. The program faced a significant setback when a subcontractor responsible for outfitting the jets’ interiors went bankrupt, necessitating Boeing’s shift to a new supplier.

The pandemic’s impact on the labor force, including stiff competition for workers, hampered Boeing’s plans, compounded by a peculiar issue where certain employees without proper clearances worked on the program, prompting scrutiny from the Pentagon.

Additionally, there have been developmental challenges reported by the Government Accountability Office last year, such as Boeing identifying numerous unexpected design errors that resulted in the suspension of wiring fabrication in March 2022.