---
title: "Elon Musk Teams Up With Boeing to Rush Production of New Air Force One"
description: "White House advisor Elon Musk has a new priority: the delivery of a pair of luxurious Boeing 747s, so he and Trump can jet around in style."
date: "2025-01-29"
modified: "2025-01-29"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-boeing-air-force-one"
categories:
  - "Boeing"
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Space"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "air force"
  - "boeing"
  - "donald trump"
  - "elon musk"
  - "the digest"
---

# Elon Musk Teams Up With Boeing to Rush Production of New Air Force One

![White House advisor Elon Musk has a new priority: the delivery of a pair of luxurious Boeing 747s, so he and Trump can jet around in style.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/elon-musk-boeing-air-force-one.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Getty / Futurism\</em\>*

## Air Force None

After leaving the federal government's operations in [shambles](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/28/trump-spending-freeze-upends-washington-triggering-legal-threats-delays/>) and [causing major confusion over healthcare funding](<https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/28/politics/trumps-federal-grant-pause-confusion-medicaid-funding/index.html>), SpaceX CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk has a new priority: the delivery of a pair of luxurious Boeing 747s, so he and president Donald Trump can jet around in style.

And in an unusual twist, Musk is talking to [longtime space industry competitor Boeing](<https://futurism.com/nasa-crew-all-funding-boeing-starliner-spacex>) to speed up the delivery of the two Air Force One passenger jets.

Musk reportedly [stopped by Boeing](<https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/business/air-force-one-boeing-elon-musk-trump/index.html>) in person to chat with the company's chief executive.

"We’ve been engaged with Elon," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg [told *CNBC*](<https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/28/elon-musk-boeing-air-force-one-replacements.html>). Ortberg [took over the reins](<https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/08/new-boeing-ceo-kelly-ortberg.html>) in August in an effort to rescue the company's [nose-diving](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-jet-nosedives-passengers-hospital>) reputation.

It's an eyebrow-raising collaboration, to say the least. Boeing has repeatedly made headlines for years over its passenger planes [falling apart mid-air](<https://futurism.com/boeing-planes-flying-safety>) and [worse](<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/u-s-and-boeing-investigators-examine-the-site-of-fatal-south-korean-plane-crash>).

The company has been in crisis mode for a while now, [laying off around 17,000 employees](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-lay-off-17000-workers>) in October following a disastrous year and a [massive strike](<https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/boeing-factory-workers-rally-seattle-strike-enters-second-month-2024-10-15/>). Its efforts to develop an alternative to SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft have [been a complete catastrophe as well](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-sell-off-starliner>).

## Jetting Odds

In a move that's become a [hallmark of Boeing's operations](<https://futurism.com/nasa-inspector-boeing-work-moon-rocket>), the Air Force One planes are already more than $2 billion over budget and several years late.

In 2018, Trump [struck a $3.9 billion deal](<https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/boeing-air-force-one-donald-trump/index.html>) with the aerospace company for two new Air Force One planes, asking for them to be ready by 2021. But Boeing has dragged its feet, blaming labor constraints and supply chain shortages for the four-year delay and astronomical overspending.

"The president wants those planes sooner so we’re working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs," Ortberg told *CNBC*.

Needless to say, the money could be better spent on virtually anything else. Trump's chaotic first two weeks in the White House have been filled with alleged actions to cut the federal government's budget.

Yet a pair of lavish, multibillion-dollar planes are somehow *not* on the chopping block, once again showing the administration's unwillingness to put its money where its mouth is.

And Ortberg is *still* preparing for failure, telling investors not long after meeting with Musk that there was "no silver bullet" for the Air Force One program, as [quoted by *CNN*](<https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/business/air-force-one-boeing-elon-musk-trump/index.html>).

**More on Boeing:** *[A Boeing Jet's Nose Was Caught on Video Suddenly Collapsing to the Ground](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-jet-nose-collapse>)*

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)