特朗普为何想要一架新的“空军一号”
Why Does the Trump Administration Want a New Air Force One?

President Trump has said the United States needs a more “impressive” Air Force One, on par with the sleek jets he has seen in oil-rich nations in the Middle East.
特朗普总统表示，美国需要一架更“气派”的、能与他在中东石油国家看到的豪华飞机相媲美的“空军一号”。

The two 747-200s that serve as Air Force One now — depending on when the president is on board — are more than 30 years old and were meant to be phased out of service years ago.
现在作为“空军一号”使用的两架747-200飞机（当总统乘坐时那架飞机即为“空军一号”）已经服役超过30年，本应在几年前逐步退役。

Efforts over the last 10 years to replace them have met with repeated delays, and the planes aren’t expected to be finished before Mr. Trump leaves office, though perhaps 2027 at the earliest.
过去10年里，替换这两架飞机的努力一再遭到推迟，尽管最早可能在2027年完成，但预计新飞机无法在特朗普卸任前交付使用。

So he has said he plans to accept a Boeing 747-8 known as a “palace in the sky” as a donation from the Qatari royal family to the Pentagon, to then be turned over to his presidential library. The plan — which Qatari officials have said is merely under discussion but not finalized — has drawn immense blowback, including from Republicans, as Mr. Trump has defiantly insisted there’s no problem with it.
因此，他表示，他计划接受卡塔尔王室向五角大楼捐赠的一架被称为“空中宫殿”的波音747-8飞机，然后将其转移到自己的总统图书馆。卡塔尔官员表示，该计划只是在讨论中，尚未最终敲定，但它已引发了包括共和党人在内的巨大反弹，而特朗普公然坚称此事并无不妥。

The aircraft now serving as Air Force One are safe, but they are timeworn, and airplanes are meant to fly only for a certain amount of time before they need to be retired.
现在作为“空军一号”使用的飞机是安全的，但它们已经老旧，飞机在达到一定飞行时长之后就确实需要退役。

“They are just old airplanes — and airplanes have finite lives,” said Frank Kendall, who until early this year served as the Air Force secretary, and who first started working on contracts to replace the two planes during the Obama administration. “There is no question about it that these planes need to be replaced.”
“它们是老旧的飞机——而飞机的寿命是有限的，”弗兰克·肯德尔说，他直到今年年初一直担任空军部长，在奥巴马政府期间，他首次开始着手替换这两架飞机的合同事宜。“毫无疑问，这些飞机需要更换。”

There are fewer than two dozen 747-200s that fly globally anymore, and spare parts for replacements require work to obtain and often have to be custom made.
目前在全球飞行的747-200飞机不到24架，更换所需的备件难以获得，而且往往必须定制生产。

Presidential jets tend to last for a few decades. In 1990, the U.S. military began using the 747 jets that still fly today, with three floors of space that include a conference room, as well as specialized communications equipment.
总统专机一般可服役几十年。1990年，美国军方开始使用至今仍在飞行的747喷气式飞机，机上有三层空间，包括一个会议室，以及专门的通信设备。

The journey to develop new jets to serve as Air Force One — the call sign for whatever plane the president is traveling aboard — has been long.
研发新型飞机作为“空军一号”（总统所乘飞机的呼号）的历程十分漫长。

It began when President George W. Bush initiated plans for two new presidential aircraft midway through his second term. Mr. Bush had experienced the importance of a functioning presidential aircraft when he and some advisers spent the eight hours after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks traveling aboard Air Force One around the East Coast, the safest place he could be at the time, as he directed the response.
它始于乔治·W·布什总统在第二任期中期提出两架新总统专机的计划。2001年9月11日恐怖袭击发生后，布什和一些顾问乘坐“空军一号”在东海岸飞行了八个小时，这是当时他指挥应对行动时最安全的地方，这段经历让他体会到一架正常运转的总统专机的重要性。

During President Barack Obama’s tenure, the plans for new planes did not accelerate until his second-to-last year in office. In 2015, the military chose Boeing to deliver 747-8 frames for the new aircraft.
在奥巴马总统任期内，新飞机的计划直到他执政的倒数第二年才加速推进。2015年，军方选择波音公司为新飞机提供747-8机身框架。

They were to be rebuilt with specifications allowing them to withstand radiation that might be in the air after a nuclear blast and certain types of missile attacks, as well as the ability to refuel while in the air.
重造的飞机能够承受核爆炸和某些类型的导弹袭击后可能在空中产生的辐射，并具备空中加油的能力。

The 747 itself cost about $250 million, Mr. Kendall said, but the final Air Force One plane comes with a price tag of at least $2 billion — which Mr. Kendall said illustrates just how comprehensive and time consuming the overhaul of the jet is before it is ready to carry the president.
肯德尔说，波音747本身的成本约为2.5亿美元，但最终的“空军一号”飞机的价格至少为20亿美元。肯德尔说，这表明了在飞机准备就绪搭载总统之前改造的复杂和耗时程度。

The work includes building a flying version of the Situation Room inside the plane, a communications system enabling the president to get in touch with any military or political leader in the world, a mini medical clinic, and defensive measures in case there is an enemy missile trying to take it down.
这项工作包括在飞机内建造一个空中战情室、一个能使总统与全球任何军事或政治领导人取得联系的通信系统、一个小型医疗诊所，以及为防止敌方导弹试图击落飞机而装备的防御措施。

“It’s not just an airplane anymore,” Mr. Kendall said. “It is a flying White House.”
“它不仅仅是一架飞机了，”肯德尔说。“它是一个会飞的白宫。”

In 2018, with progress on the planes moving slowly, Mr. Trump’s administration granted Boeing a contract — renegotiated from one that had existed under Mr. Obama — for two new 747-8 planes. Instead of building them from scratch, they would use the frames of jets built for a Russian airline that went out of business.
2018年，由于新专机进展缓慢，特朗普政府授予波音两架新747-8飞机的合同——是在奥巴马执政时期的合同基础上重新谈判而来。这两架飞机将使用为一家倒闭的俄罗斯航空公司制造的飞机的框架，而不是从零开始制造。

They were to be equipped with military hardening and defense systems, in the hopes that Mr. Trump might be able to fly on them at the end of his first term.
这两架飞机将配备军事加固和防御系统，希望特朗普在第一个任期结束时能够乘坐它们飞行。

But the coronavirus pandemic helped cause a fresh round of delays. The company that was contracted to produce the specialized interior — not just belt buckles and seats but communications and storage systems — went out of business. Boeing also saw supply line shortages for some parts.
但新冠病毒大流行导致了新一轮的延误。承包生产专用内部设备——不仅包括安全带扣和座椅，还有通信和存储系统——的公司倒闭了。波音公司也出现了部分零部件的供应短缺。

Yet Boeing suffered a string of problems unrelated to the pandemic, as well. Among them, the Federal Aviation Administration identified cracks in frames of Boeing 747-8 planes that required extensive fixes.
然而，波音公司也遭遇了一系列与疫情无关的问题，其中包括美国联邦航空管理局发现波音747-8机身框架存在裂缝，需要进行大规模修复。

All of that has meant the planes that were to be delivered by 2024 are still behind schedule, and may not be ready by the time Mr. Trump leaves office.
所有这些都意味着原定于2024年交付的飞机仍落后于计划，可能无法在特朗普卸任时准备就绪。

That has infuriated Mr. Trump, who once owned an airline shuttle service and knows a great deal about planes, having owned private planes over time. Mr. Trump owns a used 757 airplane known as Trump Force One that has been decorated with gold and mahogany tables.
这让特朗普大为光火，他曾经拥有过一家航空公司，对飞机非常了解，而且多年来一直拥有私人飞机。特朗普拥有一架二手757飞机，被称为“特朗普军一号”(Trump Force One)，机内装饰着黄金和红木桌。

Its color scheme is blue, red and white — the same colors he wants for the new Air Force One, to replace the familiar robin’s egg blue of the current design. Mr. Trump has traveled around with a model of the new Air Force One since he left office, proudly displaying it in the main room at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, in the years between his two terms.
它的配色是蓝色、红色和白色——与他希望的新“空军一号”的配色相同，以取代目前设计中人们熟悉的知更鸟蛋蓝色。在两届任期之间的几年里，特朗普经常随身带着新版“空军一号“的模型，或是自豪地把它展示在他位于佛罗里达州的私人俱乐部马阿拉歌庄园的大厅里。

But the age of the current Air Force One planes seems to bother Mr. Trump less than the visuals. He believes they don’t possess the level of impressive symbolism of America that he thinks they should, and that the leaders of the oil-rich nations he is currently visiting have nicer planes than the ones he travels on.
但比起飞机的机龄，特朗普似乎更在意“空军一号”的外观。他认为这两架飞机没有他认为应该具备的那种令人印象深刻的美国象征意义，而他目前访问的石油富国领导人的飞机比他乘坐的飞机更好。

“The plane that you’re on right now is almost 40 years old,” Mr. Trump told the Fox News host Sean Hannity during an interview aboard Air Force One as Mr. Trump traveled to the Middle East this week.
“你现在坐的这架飞机差不多有40年的历史了，”特朗普本周乘坐“空军一号”访问中东期间接受福克斯新闻主持人肖恩·汉尼提采访时表示。

“And when you land and you see Saudi Arabia, and you see U.A.E., and you see Qatar and you see all these — and they have these brand-new Boeing 747s mostly, and you see ours next to it, this is like a totally different plane. It’s much smaller. It’s much less impressive, as impressive as it is,” Mr. Trump said.
“降落的时候，你会看到沙特阿拉伯、阿联酋、卡塔尔，你会看到所有这些国家——他们大部分都拥有全新的波音747，你会看到我们的飞机就在它旁边，这就像一架完全不同的飞机。它要小得多。尽管它本身很气派，但没他们的飞机那么气派，”特朗普说。

“And we’re the United States of America. I believe that we should have the most impressive plane,” he said.
“我们是美利坚合众国。我认为我们应该拥有最气派的飞机，”他说。

But taking possession of a gifted Qatari jet is only the first step of a very complex and lengthy process that would be necessary to prepare it to become a true Air Force One, Mr. Kendall said.
但肯德尔说，拥有一架卡塔尔赠送的飞机只是一个非常复杂而漫长的过程的第一步，要想让它成为真正的“空军一号”，还需要一个非常复杂和漫长的过程。

“What they will get is a luxury airplane designed to fly around an emir or some member of the royal family in an opulent flying palace,” he said. “But that is nothing like the capability and unique features of an Air Force One. The Air Force can paint it with the colors that President Trump wants, but it won’t be an Air Force One.”
“他们将得到的是一架豪华飞机，是专为酋长或王室成员打造的奢华飞行宫殿，”他说。“但这与‘空军一号’的能力和独特功能完全无法相比。空军可以把它涂成特朗普总统想要的颜色，但它不会是‘空军一号’。”