File this in the ‘There’s always an aviation angle’ folder. There’s a leading indicator that will definitively tell the world if President Trump has decided to leave the Presidency. It’s his airplane.
His private 757-200 (N757AF) has been stored at Stewart Airport in upstate NY since 2019. If it’s going to fly as his personal plane again, it’s going to need maintenance. It was seen
I’m told that there has been a hunt for a single Rolls-Royce RB211 engine needed for one cycle, which is to say one takeoff and one landing for the 757. airliners.net/photo/Trump/Bo…
The one cycle in this case is a departure from Stewart to an earmarked MRO facility in Lake Charles, LA. The airplane has been largely dormant for a while and its systems and components are overdue for maintenance.
The tipster tells me that it wasn’t kept service ready because, well, the president “didn’t think he’d need it again for another four years.”
So, in short, when N757AF moves to maintenance in Louisiana, the airplane is being prepared to fly Trump as a private citizen.
Jan. 19 update: As of Monday evening a single RB211 engine for the Trump Organization’s Boeing 757 has not been located for the aircraft’s ferry flight to Lake Charles, LA. The aircraft remains at Stewart International north of NYC.
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I am pleased to report that with 25 years of reflection, I have always been me. June 1997: 7th grade English class project was to publish your own magazine, fake ads and all. Before there was @theaircurrent. Before there was FlightBlogger. There was SpaceWorld.
@theaircurrent Oh yeah, we had a website. It’s not there anymore. (I checked) All “published” a month before Pathfinder and Sojourner landed on Mars.
I’ve just started going through about 8 big boxes of stuff from my childhood that arrived last week from Boston. A whole lot of airplane photos that are now only good with 20 years of nostalgia attached. Grainy ACA 328Jet at Logan anyone?
The rumblings of a ~300 airplane Airbus deal date back to fall 2020, but all indications at that point suggested it would wait until after the U.S. presidential election. It was clear that the Max was a pawn in the geopolitical game. theaircurrent.com/china/737-max-…
In the closing days of the Trump administration, U.S. policy underwent a major shift that largely derailed China's own move toward cultivating a home-grown commercial aircraft capability to fly alongside Boeing & Airbus. theaircurrent.com/china/chinas-c…
In the opening months of the Biden Administration, the relationship between the U.S. and China got its first face-to-face test. It didn't go well. theaircurrent.com/china/us-china…
We need to stop for moment and take stock of the abject evisceration of the Russian commercial aircraft fleet and airline market that is currently taking place.
Prior to the sanctions, Russia had one of the most active domestic aviation operations, a global highlight in an otherwise ailing airline market with the two-year pandemic. The market was actually ABOVE 2019 levels of traffic last summer.
Both Airbus and Boeing have announced suspension of parts and services to the Russian fleet, effectively cutting off maintenance support to Russian airlines. Local airlines have some capability to service their own, but they will quickly become paperweights.
A lot of folks are going to be watching Downfall this weekend, the new @netflix documentary on the 737 Max. I had a chance to be a part of the film, offering technical & historical context drawn from my time reporting on Boeing. I wanted to share some additional reading.
Today is a very special day for my family, one I've had marked on my calendar since I was a kid.
On March 12, 1921, four Ostrower brothers aged 9 to 15 arrived with their mother, Sara, at Ellis Island. They had left a tiny village in what is today Ukraine in search of a better life. They were eager to leave a Europe ravaged by World War I and rapidly rising antisemitism.
Sara and her sons arrived in New York on the SS Savoie 100 years ago today. She was exhausted, unstable and reeling from the journey to reset her entire life after World War I.