The real dope on the Qatari 747

Can we stop talking about the political implications, and address the security questions?

Everyone’s talking about the legality of Trump and the US accepting a gift of a 747 from Qatar. OK, fine. They can all have that conversation. What I want to talk about is how much sense it makes to try and shoehorn this thing into the current schedule of delivering the two new Presidential 747 planes currently in the pipeline — and how it came to be requested by Trump (it was not “offered as a gift”).

The plane has been listed for sale by the Qatari Royal Family for five years — they can’t sell it, as the market for these over-the-top private jets is zilch. They bought it for $367 million in 2012, then spent several tens of millions of dollars putting in a gaudy luxury interior. It went virtually unused, having racked up an average of two flight hours per week.