The VIP-configured B747-8, which will be converted into Air Force One, was photographed departing Alliance Fort Worth en route to Waco.
On Aug. 8, the Boeing 747-8 N7478D, donated by Qatar to U.S. President Donald Trump, was photographed at Alliance Fort Worth, Texas, departing southbound to Waco, Texas, most probably for the first round of inspections and prep work by L3Harris Technologies, who have reportedly been contracted to convert the aircraft to the Air Force’s specifications. The sighting tracks with recent reporting that the aircraft is already in Texas and that preliminary floor plans for its refit have circulated among senior U.S. officials.
The airplane is a VIP-configured 747-8 that Qatar has agreed to transfer as an “unconditional donation” to the U.S. Department of Defense under a memorandum of understanding signed July 7, 2025, by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Qatar’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, Soud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. The text, described by both outlets that obtained it, grants the Pentagon wide latitude to use the jet “in any manner it deems appropriate” under U.S. law. It also includes a clause stating that nothing in the MoU constitutes bribery or undue influence, a line clearly aimed at political scrutiny around the arrangement.
Formerly operated as a private jet for the Qatari Royal Family, under the registration A7-HBJ, the aircraft was withdrawn from use in 2023 and eventually given the temporary registration P4-HBJ while a new operator was found.
As already reported here at The Aviationist, Boeing, in the process of converting two 747-8s into VC-25Bs, initially intended to deliver replacement aircraft by the mid 2020s. In February 2025, U.S. officials said the VC-25Bs will not enter service before 2029, and may be even later than that. 82-8000 and 92-9000, the two U.S. Air Force’s two VC-25As, were delivered in 1990 and are bespoke derivatives of the 747-200 model. By the time of their expected retirement, they will be around 40 to 45 years old.
Therefore, the Qatar-donated “Jumbo Jet” would serve as Trump’s primary Air Force One aircraft until the end of his term in January 2029, when it will be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library.
As The Washington Post first laid out on July 25, the deal was presented this spring as finished, then slowed while the Defense Department sought edits to the language. Completing the paperwork would allow the Air Force to begin the full renovation, a job the Post noted could run into the hundreds of millions and take significant time, despite public statements from service leaders that the work might be kept under a year. Lawmakers have pressed for more detail on cost and schedule, and some have questioned the legal pathway for accepting and ultimately transferring the aircraft after the administration ends.
CBS News reported on July 28 that preparations for the refit are already underway and that senior officials have reviewed interior schematics. The network also cited the signed MoU’s language on the donation and its lack of any explicit reference to “Air Force One,” while confirming that the aircraft can be employed by the Pentagon as it sees fit. That framing matters because the Air Force must certify any platform used to carry the president, with work ranging from secure communications and hardening to countermeasures, electromagnetic shielding and rigorous cyber testing. None of those items are trivial on a wide-body airframe that began life as a private head-of-state transport.
The funding path is another flashpoint. According to the Post, the Pentagon intends to cover near-term costs by moving money from the Sentinel ICBM program, filling the gap later through a broader defense appropriations package, an approach that has drawn criticism from Democrats who argue the refit will crowd out other priorities. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told Congress the renovation would cost “less than $400 million,” a figure challenged by skeptics on Capitol Hill. CBS News echoed both the “less than $400 million” estimate and the plan to tap Sentinel funds labeled “excess to need,” while noting the missile program’s well-documented overruns and delays.
From an aviation perspective, the airframe itself is the easy part; what appears to be more difficult is its “missionization.” Even a low-time, 13-year old 747-8 must be stripped, audited for foreign hardware, rewired and rebuilt around government-grade communications, defensive systems and survivability features, then validated through flight test and certification. That is precisely why recent administrations procured highly modified 747-8s from Boeing through the VC-25B program, a path that has proven longer and more expensive than originally planned. The donated jet is being positioned, at least on paper, as a bridge solution until the VC-25B effort delivers a real outcome, but every indication from both outlets is that the refit will be measured in many months and many millions.
H/T to our contributor and friend Victoria Fontana, for sending us the photo of N7478D you can find in this article.
