US President Joe Biden waves after leaving Marine One before boarding Air Force One to leave Washington for a trip to Wilmington, Delaware, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on February 5, 2021.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Boeing said on Thursday it had filed a lawsuit against Air Force One, the plane carrying the U.S. president, at a Texas supplier and canceled due to delays in completing the domestic work on the two highly modified 747-8s. aircraft.
The US planner said in a statement that he had canceled contracts “with GDC Technics … due to their insolvency and failure to meet contractual obligations.” GDC Technics did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In its case in the Texas State Court on Wednesday, Boeing said the delays “resulted in millions of dollars in damages to Boeing and threatened to endanger jobs that are critical to the (US Air Force) and the President of the United States. set. “
The air force referred questions to Boeing.
In July 2018, Boeing received a $ 3.9 billion contract to build two 747-8 aircraft for use as Air Force One, to be delivered by December 2024. A Boeing spokesman said the planner was still planning to comply with the Air Force’s delivery schedule.
GDC, which ‘agreed to design and build the interior of the two Air Force One aircraft’, is ‘about a year behind schedule to meet its contractual obligations’, Boeing said in its case. first reported by KXAS-TV, Dallas NBC.
The Boeing 747-8s are designed to be a White House in the air, capable of flying in the worst case of security scenarios such as nuclear war, and are equipped with military aviation, advanced communications and a self-defense system.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump said the new model would upgrade Air Force One interiors and a different color scheme than the white and two blue shades used since President John F. Kennedy’s government.
In January, White House spokesman Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden “had not for a moment thought of the Air Force One color scheme.”