Old af-1
 

A different version to throw into the mix on this thread.
The clip came to me today via e-mail. Fate? :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehwvZXVKmPU

What a shame, that girl needs a fan club. I'd like to buy it just to hear the engines start':)

Not sure the fate of this particular ship; I believe I saw it at the Pima air museum in Tucson years ago, not far from DM. For those interested in Connies, check out what Lufthansa is doing in Auburn Maine; it's incredible and a high dollar restoration...

Any new ship is a least 8 more likely 10 years out from its first trip with POTUS.
AF1 is at its hart a 747-200.
What do you think parts will be like for the 200 in ten plus years. One of the problems in taking a late build 200 for AF 1 was always going to be parts problems long before the aircraft are out of life. 35 years after the last commercial build most aircraft are difficult to support.

He can fly Y class. Jez, not sure I want the clowns who got us into a nuclear war to live anyway.
They can just rot like the rest of us.

I hear you. Ironically, though, the impression that our government can survive a nuclear exchange is what has kept us out of one for six decades. We have invested a lot of money and continue to throw money at nuclear survivability long after the end of the Cold War. Anyone been to Offutt recently and seen the big new ditch they are digging?
Air Force one is what it is for many reasons. I think only the Saudis have a sweeter exec transport, and I am guessing it doesn't have many of the bells and whistles that make af1 what it is.
I would hate to see the final price tag on the new af1 after all the gold plating and requirements creep that are going to go into that thing. They couldn't even manufacture a new presidential helo without going grossly over budget and getting the program yanked.

This is exactly right. I suspect that they've stuck with the old one this long for the general public's perception that keeping them is cheaper than replacing them. Yet it would likely be cheaper to replace them with 800's.

EXACTLY. And we should not forget...the WH isn't only worried about "losing" an engine, but also having 1 or 2 SHOT out.

I guess the FE is out of a job...
 

With regard to the A380 being a nonstarter, setting aside the not insignificant political issue of the President's plane being American made, are clearance problems.

Every person that works on that production line has to be cleared to an insane level. The American companies that deal with the presidential helos/planes struggle with this. There's no conceivable way a foreign company, much less one that builds pieces of their plane in multiple different countries, could ever get through the hurdles to get all the required personnel cleared.