US President Donald Trump
Credit: Reuters Photo
US President Donald Trump's administration intends to accept a Boeing 747-8 plane as a gift from the Qatari royal family that would be outfitted to serve as Air Force One.
The luxury plane, which would be one of the most valuable gifts ever received by the US government, would eventually be donated to Trump's presidential library after he leaves office, Reuters reported citing a source. A new commercial 747-8 costs approximately $400 million.
A 16 page "aircraft specification summary" of the plane is posted on the site of Swiss firm AMAC Aerospace, with details about the aircraft and its interior.
The document also has pictures of the interior of the plane, which has various types of seats installed.
The plane has upper deck double seat, upper deck lounge, a master bedroom, Fwd lounge, upper deck, private office, Aft double seating area and a club seating area.
Divided into four zones, the passenger compartments include overhead passenger module (OPM ) that has a capacity of 8 beds.
Zone one consists of master bedroom, master bathroom, guest bedroom and private lounge, along with guest bathroom and Zone 2 has the main lounge, and main entrance.
Some of the additional features include: Installation of Electric Window shades and Roman shades, insulation blankets which provide thermal insulation and noise attenuation functions.
With portable fire extinguishers installed throughout the interior of the aircraft, Anti-intrusion system is put which provide highly reliable aircraft intrusion monitoring for the unattended aircraft.
The water system in the plane provides hot and cold portable water to each galley sink, lavatory sink and showers.
Additionally, digital IFE (In flight entertainment) system is provided with Audio/Video On Demand (AVOD) / Digital Rights Management (DRM) and game capability.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social late on Sunday, Trump appeared to confirm the gift proposal.
"So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane," he wrote.
(With Reuters inputs)