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Jumbo jets built for Russian carrier to serve as Air Force One

Each jet of the B 747-8 family costs $ 386.8 million

NEW YORK, August 5. /TASS/. U.S. Air Force and Boeing Co. have reached agreement on buying two Jumbo jets that will be overhauled to serve as Air Force One, or the aircraft carrying the U.S. President.

The two Boeing 747-8 jets were initially built for the Russian airline Transaero, which dissolved in 2-15. They will be overhauled and re-equipped in line with the standards applied to the aircraft servicing the U.S. Presidents.

Bloomberg said in a report on the agreement the Air Force officials did not specify the value of the transaction.

"We got a really good deal," Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said on Friday. "I’m pleased with that."

U.S. Congress committees adopted an allocation of $ 195 million as part of the previously endorsed expenditure to speed up an agreement on purchasing the two jets. Each jet of the B 747-8 family costs $ 386.8 million.

Transaero placed an order for the four Jumbos in 2013 received two of them but did not manage to get them because of the bankruptcy that forced it to dissolve in 2015. After the bankruptcy, the Russian national flag carrying airline Aeroflot took over the greater part of Transaero’s fleet but it refused to accept the two above-said jets.

At present, the fleet of the aircraft serving the U.S. President has two airliners created on the basis of Boeing 727-200B. Their service life expires this year. They made their first flights in 1987 when Ronald Reagan was President of the U.S.

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