{"id":23159,"date":"2017-08-02T18:10:09","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T12:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=23159"},"modified":"2017-08-02T18:15:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T12:45:47","slug":"save-us-taxpayers-money-donald-trump-expand-air-force-one-jets-bankrupt-russian-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/world-news\/save-us-taxpayers-money-donald-trump-expand-air-force-one-jets-bankrupt-russian-firm\/","title":{"rendered":"To save US taxpayer\u2019s money, Donald Trump to expand Air Force One with jets from bankrupt Russian firm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Displaying his self-acclaimed fiscal prudence, it seems President Donald Trump<\/strong><\/a> is backing the US Air Force for finalising a deal with bankrupt Russian airline Transaero and aviation major Boeing to buy 747-8 jetliners for expansion of the Air Force One fleet in a bid to save money paid by American taxpayers from being spent on the otherwise massive expense of buying new aircraft.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a report in The Independent, the two jets are currently parked in the dry Mojave desert since Transaero, which had originally placed a purchase order with Boeing for these aircraft, went bankrupt before making good on the deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe two jets that may become the next iconic Air Force One fleet have been sitting in the (Mojave) desert since earlier this year, after a deal between the jet\u2019s manufacturer Boeing and a Russian airline fell through. The dry air in Mojave makes the area ideal for storing planes, as the air won’t be corrosive. The area, in general, is a storage place for older planes and planes that may one day be flown again,\u201d the report in The Independent said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The deal is reportedly in its final stages now and the American media quoted Ann Stefanek, the spokesperson of US Air Force, as saying: \u201cWe\u2019re working through the final stages of coordination to purchase two commercial 747-8 aircraft and expect to award a contract soon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are reports suggesting that the deal may actually be finalised within days and a formal announcement on the same may come within this week itself. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although Boeing did not confirm the specifics of the sale, it has reportedly said that the negotiations were centred on delivering a \u201cgreat value\u201d for the Air Force and American people, indicating that the negotiations were at an advanced, perhaps ultimate, stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Independent report however also added that \u201cthe planes are going to cost quite a bit more than your average Boeing 747-8\u00a0 \u2014 which has a sticker price of $386.8 million \u2014 since the US military will need to outfit it with specific protections and capabilities for the President\u2019s use and protection.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pentagon<\/strong><\/a> budget requests have laid out $3.2 billion to pay for those modifications. Those changes include adding private conference rooms in the cabin, private living quarters for the President, an operating room for emergency procedures in-flight, flares in the wings for deterring missiles, a probe for mid-air refuelling, and reinforcement so that the fuselage can withstand a ground-level nuclear blast.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After his surprise win in the 2016 US Presidential election, Trump had said that he thought the cost of a new Air Force One fleet was too much for the taxpayer to bear and had pledged to negotiate a better, low-cost deal Displaying his self-acclaimed fiscal prudence, it seems President Donald Trump is backing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":23162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1511],"tags":[1764,13671],"yst_prominent_words":[5677,14809,14807,14818,8776,3891,14817,14820,14811,14815,14808,11509,14819,14813,14814,5045,14810,14812,14821,14816],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2017\/08\/trump.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23159"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23159"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}