The Boeing 747-8 being offered to Donald Trump by Qatar once served the Qatari royal family and has been sitting unsold for years.
The jet, a lavishly configured version of Boeing’s largest passenger aircraft, has been lingering without a buyer since being put up for sale in 2020, according to aircraft listings and aviation analysts.
John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Forbes that giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that were only getting higher—with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them.
It’s the modem day white elephant. Lol
I had to do a double take. I thought your comment might have had an issue with keming…
I’m curious how they would convert this to be a functional Air Force One plane.
That aircraft is disassembled and reassembled almost entirely on a regular basis to keep it in tip top shape and find sabotage and issues, etc.
It’s also equipped specially with military defences, and of course has an onboard suite of equipment and personnel to run a war from the sky, in air refuelling, etc etc.
It’s an EXTREMELY specialised version of that very reliable aircraft, is what I’m saying.
How would they bring this new plane up to that standard, and why should they waste tax money on doing so? What’s the benefit to the nation?
It all seems ridiculous from the outside looking in. It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes, always getting the worst end of a deal, when the smarter people play him over and over.
…no?
How would they bring this new plane up to that standard
Spoilers: They absolutely will not be bringing this death trap up to the current plane’s standards.
This will either site on a tarmac largely forgotten about for four years, at which point Trump will try and off-load it (if he hasn’t completely forgotten he owns it). Or it’ll become one of those “never going to be finished” government vanity projects that becomes an excuse to write blank checks to Boeing for billing statements littered with “Headlight Fluid: $4k, Crank Shaft Lengthening Service: $20k” line items.
Absolute best case scenario, someone in the administration actually tries to fly in this thing before the term is complete. And we all get to laugh (or cry, depending on who it lands on) on reading the consequences.
It seems that they’re just trying to appease a stupid man who thinks like a dodgy car salesman, and thus is happy to accept big dumb bribes
That’s who Americans believe is best able to run our country. We have been kicking and screaming for the last 40 years to have the US run like a business. And what other business best exemplifies the US than Used Car Dealership?
What’s the benefit to the nation?
Why do you even jokingly use a framework in which you’re assuming the current US government does anything “for the nation” instead of themselves?
And also, they’re just gonna ward off attacks with, uhm… gilded smoothie machines and massaging chairs.
I have a submarine to sell this guy
A white elephant.
It’d be funny if the US decides to accept the plane and then Boeing spends the next 4 years retrofitting it with all the military communications and air defense features that the typical Air Force One carries. Then if Trump leaves office, because of military secrets, they spend the next 4 years stripping it back down to civilian level and he dies before ever getting to use it.
Ooh, say that last part again.
don’t stop, I’m almost there!
Car salesman puts one over on the senile real estate guy.
My in-laws used to do this.
I love them, but every time they bought something new, they’d give us the old one like it wasn’t something they were getting rid of. Easier to give it to us than throw it away.
The last time was a sofa and a love seat. We were stuck with the most uncomfortable furniture I’ve ever had in my life.
If you don’t like it, why would you take it?
Trying to avoid being rude, making them feel bad.
You have to stand up for yourself. You can decline stuff perfectly fine without being rude. And if they would consider that rude, they are the rude ones.
At the end, we did. At this point my FIL passed away more than 10 years ago. MIL downsized and tossed most things. There’s really nothing left that we would need to deal with.
She still owns the most uncomfortable furniture. I was thinking that it might just be because of my size (6’4"), but my wife (5’1") agrees that it’s just terrible. There’s one chair my MIL uses and I wonder if that’s the only comfortable one.
If this keeps up, they’d think you’re such a pushover and take advantage of you.
I truly believe they thought they were helping.
I’ve started telling people to not give me their garbage.
I’ve made a lot of people upset, but also I don’t have to dispose of other people’s garbage, so as far as I’m concerned that’s a win.
Tell them to deliver it, and send them the address of the county landfill.
they just show up at my house, unannounced, usually while I’m not there, and my roommates tell me “here’s a gift from ms derpinshnek”, and I have to say “tell her to take it back.”
they gave away a used love seat?
🤞 there are mechanical difficulties with it
We need everybody to tell good old Donnie that he was “gifted” a plane that’s the equivalent to the rusty old piece of s*** car that’s been sitting in the yard for 5 years and hasn’t sold.
Wow so it’s not even a NEW plane but shitty high maintenance sloppy seconds.
The mandarin chief really does have a type…
I guess he finally realized that a 747 really is bigger and faster that his 757.
On a scale from the Watergate hotel room to an American embassy in Moscow, how bugged do you think it is?
Jesus fucking Christ… Qatar is basically a scumbag real estate agent conning an idiot into buying a condemned shack in a swamp as a “cozy waterfront getaway”, but on a colossally stupid level.
Damn sure wouldn’t waste a new one on him
So you’re telling me there’s a slight chance of a RUD mid-flight?
I would settle for a snafu that ends in an unscheduled remote water landing
I’ll take a flat spin due to poor placement of a solid gold toilet with a heavy McDonald’s shit dropped in it
