Plus those are all older airframes than the current 747s, not designed to carry passengers, would require all the same refits as a 747, don’t have anything like the required range…
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We could skip a few of those if it keeps him happy…
From the article:
The Air Force said previously that it had earmarked $1.65 billion for two new presidential aircraft, which will be four-engine Boeing 747-8s. The source of Trump’s $4 billion cost estimate for the program was not immediately clear…
“The source of … was not immediately clear” is a euphemism I expect to hear a lot of in the future.
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Can we hurry up to the “Couldn’t put Humpty together again” part?
Except that sounds like “All Paul Ryans, and all the Mike Pence, had no particular interest in putting Trumpty back together again.” shiver
They’re huge, but designed to operate on dirt fields with relatively short runways (at least if they’re not at maximum capacity.
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I’m totally up for flying Trump to some dirt field in the middle of nowhere (and leaving him there).
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Which don’t have tunnels and other things underneath that a heavy plane rolling over them would cause all sorts of damage to. This is one of the big issues with the A380.
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The worst dirt field.
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I hope not. Working SAMFOX is hard as hell, and the people working those aircraft bust their ass for everything from running engines to cleaning all the shiny. Waxing aircraft chrome is not as fun as it might sound, nor are the exceptionally long days when on a trip somewhere.
trump would undoubtedly find some way to insult the aircraft or its crew (what with them being veterans, and a good slice of combat veterans at that), and it’s been clear from the start that he wouldn’t appreciate the mission or the people behind it.
Fuck him. Tell him to fly Delta or someshit.
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Given all the grifting so far, I lean heavily toward this being another attempt by him to expand his kleptocracy.
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GAO says $3.2BB, FTFA
Seems like this project employs more people than some Indiana air conditioner factory.
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I wonder if anyone’s checked the usual suspects for recent articles yet.
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IIRC the project in place is to provide two new planes to replace the two planes currently in service when they reach the end of the planned 30 year lifespan, which is 2022. It takes a lot of time to plan, build, outfit and test a plane like this. And it’s going to cost a lot no matter what.
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“Last week, Mr. Trump announced a new panel of corporate advisers, called the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. One member of that panel is W. James McNerney Jr., the former chairman and chief executive of Boeing.”
Jim must have busted a vessel in his head after hearing Trumps mouth fart! Clearly Trump’s new panel of corporate advisers amount to NOTHING. He isn’t going to listen to them anyway.
Trump is going to say something stupid and get us all nuked. How the fuck does the electoral college not see this??
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His Trump Tower security detail is only a mere $1.46 billion over the course of 4 years.
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Technically, any airplane the President is on is “Air Force 1”.
But just like living in the middle of Manhattan instead of the White House, the outrageous and totally unnecessary additional costs to support and protect a President who refuses to use the official plane created for the President’s use is further proof that not only should we not have a businessman with no public service experience as President, we should very especially not have a LOSER businessman with no relevant experience.
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I don’t have any idea whether the show “House of Lies” was popular enough to be a cultural touchstone, I just watched a season of it on Netflix. There is an episode where someone asks them where a number came from and he says, “It’s FCA” which, he explains to the audience, is “From Calvin’s Ass”, Calvin being a somewhat legendary management consultant. The hope being that if you throw out a three letter acronym the question will disappear.
All that simply to say, my strong feeling is that $4B was FTA.
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Off the top of my head I am guessing that John McCain is up to something. Big Boeing hater John is.
“It’s up to him – it’s his plane,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If he can get it done cheaper, good.”
The committee’s chairman, John McCain, said it was Trump’s “prerogative” to question the costs of the new planes.
“It’s going to be his airplane,” said the Arizona Republican. “I’m concerned about the costs as well.”
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Estimated Program Cost and Quantity (fiscal year 2016 dollars):
Total program (fiscal years 2010-2020): $3,210.6 million
Research and development (fiscal years 2010-2020): $1,987.1 million
Procurement (fiscal years 2017-2020): $282.2 million
Quantity: 2
That’s a pretty crazy R&D number, but I suppose you can’t just slap military tech into a 747.
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The Washington Post says:
The entire cost of the program, including development costs, is expected to reach $4 billion, according an analysis by Todd Harrison, a defense analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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