Our buddy Stephen Trimble has filed an exclusive report at Flight International asserting that, according to one industry source, the USAF is looking at Airbus’s Superjumbo A380 as a replacement for the Boeing 747s used to transport the president:
Over at the Danger Room, Noah Shachtman says that the A380 “is billions over budget and years behind schedule. Which, I suppose, makes it a perfect fit for the Defense Department.” True enough, but the thought of a U.S. president riding around in a French airplane seems far-fetched. Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t really matter–the president is expected to Buy American. While the new Presidential helicopter, Marine One, is being built largely overseas, Lockheed’s partner, AgustaWestland, is Italian, not French, and the firms helped deflect criticism of the project by labeling the helicopter the U.S. 101. The A380, however, is a French national champion. It will be interesting to see what comes of the KC-X competition between Boeing and Airbus. I think it’s highly unlikely Airbus can win that either, but if the Air Force, and Congress, are comfortable with a large fleet of French planes in the U.S. Air Force, maybe the idea of the president flying in an A380 isn’t so ridiculous as it sounds. Update: Check out some awesome panoramas of the A380’s interior. Update II: Bill Sweetman, the dean of aviation blogging, weighs in on this story:
Go read the whole thing, there’s lots of ancient history in there. It’s almost like Sweetman was doing this since before I was born.
