Boeing’s mistake in thinking it could deliver two 747 jets for the White House was what prompted President Donald Trump’s interest in accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar.
Boeing in 2018 accepted a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract from the Air Force to build two customized 747-8s by 2024 but failed to deliver them on time, causing the expected completion date to be extended to 2029, if not even later, as first reported by Fox News.
Boeing was awarded a contract to build a new Air Force One in 2018, with a 2024 delivery date.
This is unacceptable. Trump has every right to look elsewhere. pic.twitter.com/Udw0naKgTE
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) February 18, 2025
This paved the way for a deal with Qatar, with a frustrated Trump saying in February that the White House “may have to go a different route” to obtain a new Air Force One jet.
“We’re getting a new Air Force One if they could ever finish the damn thing,” he said at the time. “We may have to go a different route.”
“They’ve been having problems with this program for quite some time,” one defense expert told Fox. “That includes building components incorrectly and having to tear them down and rebuild them, to design changes requiring rework, and trouble hiring and retaining skilled workers.”
For Boeing, the delay was one of many setbacks and mishaps that the airplane manufacturer has faced in recent years.
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The Department of Justice in 2024 launched a criminal investigation after a “door plug” burst off right after a Boeing 737 Max 9 being flown by Alaska Airlines took off from Portland International Airport.
That same year, Boeing was forced to return its problem-plagued Starliner capsule to Earth without the two International Space Station astronauts it’d supposed to have returned home.
And then between late 2018 and early 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX passenger airline crashes overseas led to the deaths of 346 people — after which Boeing avoided a criminal trial, angering many.
Despite these setbacks, Boeing recently scored a major victory on account of President Trump’s visit to Qatar.
The White House announced on Wednesday that Trump had successfully brokered a $96 billion deal between Boeing and Qatar involving the manufacturing of 210 jets.
Big win for SC! President Trump’s Qatar Airways deal secures Boeing’s largest-ever order for 210 jets, including SC-made 787 Dreamliners.
Thank you, @POTUS. 🇺🇸 ✈️ https://t.co/pp6hID8fvr
— Congressman William Timmons (@RepTimmons) May 16, 2025
“Boeing and GE Aerospace secured a landmark order from Qatar Airways, a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
“This is Boeing’s largest-ever widebody order and largest-ever 787 order. This historic agreement will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually, totaling over 1 million jobs in the United States during the course of production and delivery of this deal,” the fact sheet continued.
Accepting a new new Air Force One jet from Qatar meanwhile would not be as simple as affixing a new name and logo to it.
“The plane would need to be outfitted with secure communications systems, missile defenses, aerial refueling capabilities, protection against electromagnetic pulse attacks, and countermeasures for electronic jamming,” according to Fox. “It would also need to be cleared of any potential surveillance hardware.”
“You would need to essentially disassemble it and reassemble it with all the necessary modifications,” Abigail Hall Blanco, a defense economics professor at the University of Tampa, explained.
This would potentially cost up to $1 billion, which, however, would be less than what the White House spent for the two Boeing jets that had yet to be delivered years after the contract was signed.
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