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President Joe Biden will follow tradition and unveil a fleet blue and white Air Force One.
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The news comes years after former President Donald Trump suggested changing the colors.
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Trump’s changes would put additional heat on significant parts of the plane, the Air Force said.
President Joe Biden has decided that Air Force One will have a blue and white design similar to its predecessors, the Air Force announced Friday.
One key difference in those planes — modified Boeing 747s known as VC-25Bs — is that they will instead have a “slightly deeper, more modern tone” of blue than the reddish-egg blue used by former presidents, according to Air Force statement.
In addition, the engines will also use a darker blue and the aircraft will no longer have a polished metal section “as modern commercial aircraft skin alloys do not allow this”.
The new planes — there are two, although whichever is carrying the president at the time has the call sign Air Force One — are part of the Presidential Aircraft Replacement Program to replace the current fleet, which is facing the end of its 30-year life plan. cycle, according to the Defense Technical Information Center.
The first new aircraft is expected in 2027 and the second in 2028.
The news comes after his predecessor, President Donald Trump, proposed in 2019 that all new presidential planes have a white and navy blue color scheme, with a red stripe down the middle.
“I like the concept of red, white and blue,” Trump said in 2019. “Baby blue doesn’t suit us.”
According to the Air Force statement, the design was rejected after a thermal study determined that the new design would require additional quality testing by the Federal Aviation Administration due to the additional heat from the dark blue color of the proposed aircraft.
On January 20, 2021, shortly after Biden’s inauguration as president, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden had not “spent a moment” thinking about the color of Air Force One.
The original blue and white color scheme, sometimes referred to as “Jackie Kennedy Blue”, was first chosen by President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and the colors have been a mainstay of Air Force One. The design itself was created by industrial designer Raymond Loewy.
Every Air Force One since has followed the tradition and featured a blue and white design.
As noted by the Associated Press, the current planes first carried President George HW Bush.
Read the original article on Business Insider