George Bush's two new airplanes were first dreamed of in the 1960s and finally ordered in July 1986. They sit this winter like beached green whales on the frozen plains outside Wichita, two years overdue, $385 million over budget and gathering controversy like tumbleweed.
This future Air Force One is already being called a "flying Taj Mahal." The two Boeing 747-200Bs are included in the contract of $265 million, a cost now swollen to nearly $650 million, with Boeing and its shareholders stuck for the loss. Throw in an additional $50 million for the new hangar already constructed at Andrews Air Force Base and about $100 million for service and maintenance units. One way or another, Americans are spending the better part of a billion dollars to get their President airborne, and then it will cost around $6,000 an hour to keep him aloft. That is more than the gross national product of Greenland.
The word from the White House is that Bush is irritated about being handed such an item of conspicuous consumption while he skimps on funds for Eastern Europe, education and the drug war. The behemoth jet towers six stories and may have crossed the line of common political sense. It will dwarf an airport rally in Omaha, and does not exactly fit the Jeffersonian image of a citizen Executive going modestly among his people. The designers had an inkling of something being out of proportion and put an exit door in the plane's belly so a President would not look like the Angel Gabriel descending from the clouds as he negotiated 26 ft. of stairs. But that will hardly mask the bird's mass.
Bush never wanted a new plane. Ronald Reagan never asked for one either. This was a classic case of creation by consortium: a dozen or so offices and agencies doing their jobs as best they know how. Nobody looked up and saw that their individual efforts had created a monster.
The old 707 has about 1,350,000 miles on it, is too noisy for today's airports, and spare parts are becoming scarce. The Air Force began in 1983 to urge its replacement; not being politicians, the generals naturally were inclined to make the President's plane the safest, roomiest and best. This 747 will combine more self-sufficiency, range (7,140 miles), comfort and convenience than any other airplane ever built. It will contain all the latest communications gear, antimissile devices, nuclear-proofing and self-sustaining maintenance machinery that the Secret Service and White House staff wanted. Everybody from the stewards to the pilots was consulted, even the reporters who cover the President. They asked for the moon and got it. Boeing and Congress never blinked. The planes will be the most expensive transport aircraft ever produced.
Delivery of the first plane is expected Sept. 30, the second nine months later. What marvelous machines they will be. The presidential suite up front will have twin beds, a shower-tub, electric window curtains. Refrigerator- freezers will hold provisions to feed the 23 crew and 70 passengers for about a week. The plane could function that long on the ground or be refueled in the air should the land be scorched or otherwise inhospitable -- a Strangelovian concept the Air Force will not abandon.