Air Force One over Mt. Rushmore. Photo, Wikipedia
“Looks more American.”
Axios is reporting that Trump thinks the blue adorning the presidential jet is a “Jackie Kennedy color” and wants the next iteration to instead feature red, white and blue.
Boeing has confirmed it received a $3.9 billion contract for two new presidential planes. They will still be 747s — albeit a newer version, the 747-8 — even though the aging plane is being phased out by commercial airlines. Lazy also wants a bigger and more comfortable bed aboard the future planes that wouldn’t actually go into service until 2021, by which time he hopefully won’t be POTUS anymore.
The current look, chosen by President John F. Kennedy and created by legendary industrial designer Raymond Loewy has a lot of fans among both Air Force officers and average Joe Americans, so it may not fly, pun intended.
Air Force One historian and former Smithsonian curator Von Hardesty told CNN in a phone interview,
“It evolved from an interesting interaction between JFK, Jackie Kennedy and Raymond Loewy, who was a famed industrial designer. He criticized the looks of the plane that had been delegated for presidential use, which had a garish orange nose and looked too much like a military plane. He wanted something that would reflect the presidency and he thought this was an opportunity to fashion a really compelling design, which arguably he did.“
Loewy was among the most successful designers of his time, having created such icons as the Lucky Strike pack, Coca-Cola vending machines and the Greyhound buses, and popular logos for TWA, Exxon and Shell.
Although one of Loewy’s initial sketches included some red, the final design did not. The dominant blue paint job came at JFK’s request. Former president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts Sean Adams in an email,
“The seafoam blue and silver on the lower half was a stroke of genius to make the plane seem more horizontal and sleek. The seafoam is a surprising choice, but an elegant solution to the issue of making the plane sophisticated and modern, stepping away from the military look of Eisenhower’s Air Force One. The plane spoke to an optimism, youth, and fresh approach that was perfect for the Kennedy administration.“
The typeface for “United States of America” is Caslon, very similar to the one used in the Declaration of Independence.
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss told Axios,
“Anyone who doubts how strongly Americans feel about the way Air Force One looks should go to the Reagan Library in California and see how many people go there to look at the plane that Ronald Reagan flew on while he was president.”
No decision about the redesign has been reached yet but Trump apparently is deeply involved in the negotiations. Something else that he can fuck up. Great.
USA Today artists took a stab at what Trump might go for and it’s hard to say if they were being serious or trying to imagine the tackiest design possible? Either way, it can’t be garish enough for this Vulgarian-in-Chief.
Alex Gonzalez
Ian Young
Janet Loehrke
Ramon Padilla
(Illustrations, USA Today; via Axios)
