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Boeing Co.
BA,
factory problems disrupted production of one of its new Air Force One planes earlier this year, adding to the manufacturer’s stumbles developing the U.S. presidential jets, people familiar with the matter said.
The production mishaps, which involved a pair of attempts to place one of the two jets under development onto jacks, risked damaging the aircraft whose development is already behind schedule, these people said.
The incidents came a few months after a couple of empty tequila mini-bottles were found on one of two aircraft under development at Boeing’s production facility in San Antonio.
The highly classified jets, which will be known as Air Force One when the commander-in-chief is on board, are heavily modified 747-8 Boeing aircraft known as VC-25B military variants. Boeing attorneys, in court documents filed in a supplier dispute last year, described the Air Force One jets as “effectively an airborne seat of government” ranking alongside U.S. defense programs such as ballistic missiles that carry the “highest national priority.”
An expanded version of this story appears on WSJ.com.
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