The U.S. Air Force is repainting Air Force One and the rest of the executive fleet in a bold red, white, and dark blue color scheme, marking the first redesign of the iconic presidential aircraft livery in more than six decades.
The new look replaces the light blue and white design dating back to the Kennedy administration. The first repainted C-32 is already finished and expected to be delivered to the Air Force in the next few months.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the scope of the overhaul:
"The Air Force is implementing a new paint scheme requirement (red, white and dark blue) for VC-25B as well as the additional executive airlift fleet, which will include the new 747-8i and four C-32 aircraft."
The redesign covers the full range of executive aircraft: the next-generation VC-25B, the new 747-8i that Boeing continues to develop, and four C-32 planes currently being upgraded by government contractor L3 Harris at its facility in Greenville, Texas. The C-32s will be repainted during regularly scheduled maintenance, folding the cosmetic overhaul into work already underway.
This isn't a new idea. According to Breitbart, President Trump pushed the redesign during his first term, even rolling out a model airplane bearing his preferred color scheme. The vision was simple and unmistakable: the plane that carries the President of the United States should look like America's flag.
As Trump put it last summer:
"We're painting it red, white and blue like the American flag, which is incredible."
It's a hard concept to argue with. And yet, it was argued with. The Biden administration canceled the Trump-era paint design for the VC-25Bs, scrapping a cosmetic choice for no apparent reason beyond the fact that Trump wanted it. That's the kind of reflexive reversal that defined much of Biden's time in office: not a policy disagreement, not a cost concern, just the instinct to undo.
Now the plan is back, and this time it's being executed across the entire executive fleet, not just the VC-25B.
Critics will inevitably frame this as vanity. It isn't. The presidential aircraft is one of the most recognizable symbols of American power on the planet. When Air Force One lands on a foreign tarmac, it makes a statement before anyone steps off the plane. For sixty years, that statement has been delivered in the same Kennedy-era pastels.
There's nothing wrong with updating the look to something sharper, more distinctly American. Red, white, and blue isn't a partisan color scheme. It's the flag. The fact that this straightforward idea spent years caught in political limbo says more about Washington's dysfunction than it does about any controversy over aircraft aesthetics.
The practical side matters too. Boeing is still working on the next generation of Air Force One planes. L3 Harris is upgrading the C-32 fleet. The repaint is being rolled into maintenance schedules already in progress, which means the Air Force is handling this efficiently rather than treating it as a standalone project.
Symbols matter. They matter in diplomacy, they matter in projecting strength, and they matter to the millions of Americans who see Air Force One as something that belongs to all of them, not to whichever administration happens to occupy the West Wing. A color scheme drawn directly from the American flag roots the aircraft in the country it represents rather than in the taste of a single president from 1963.
The Kennedy-era design had its run. Six decades is a long one. What replaces it is cleaner, bolder, and harder to mistake for anything other than American.
The first repainted plane will arrive in a few months. The rest will follow. And when they do, the most powerful fleet of aircraft in the world will finally look the part.
