President Joe Biden has dumped former president Donald Trump’s Air Force One design and has decided to go with the livery design for the new presidential aircraft, “Air Force One” VC-25B, the United States Air Force announced Friday.
According to the secretary of the USAF Public Affairs, Biden’s design will closely resemble the livery of the current Air Force One, VC-25A, while also modernizing for the 21st century.
“While accounting for the VC-25B’s larger 747-8i aircraft, the VC-25B livery has three primary differences with the VC-25A’s livery. The light blue on VC-25B is a slightly deeper, more modern tone than VC-25A’s robin’s egg blue,” the United States Airforce said.
“Additionally, the VC-25B engines will use the darker blue from the cockpit area vice the VC-25A’s robin’s egg blue. Finally, there is no polished metal section on the VC-25B because modern commercial aircraft skin alloys don’t allow for it.”
Trump had planned brighter colors that would contrast with the sky —which contained a dark blue shade that would require additional Federal Aviation Commission qualification testing due to its ability to add heat to the aircraft and thus make it an easier target for heat-seeking missiles.
Biden’s livery design would allow Air Force One to seamlessly blend with the sky, making it harder to be detected by visual means, and keep the aircraft cooler.
The Air Force noted that Biden will remove the planned red, white, and blue proposed in 2019 —a sly way to keep Trump’s name out of the announcement.