Boeing Co.’s chief executive officer said Elon Musk and his DOGE team are helping the planemaker work through bottlenecks that have caused the next fleet of Air Force One jets to fall years behind schedule.
“He’s able to pretty quickly ascertain the difference between technical requirements and things that we can move out of the way,” Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s CEO, said of Musk during a Barclays conference.
“I’m all in on trying to get these airplanes up and get the president his airplanes delivered to him, which is what he wants,” Ortberg said.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the planemaker for failing to deliver the jets on time. Trump this week warned that he “may have to go a different route” than the two highly customized Boeing 747-8 jets that were ordered to much fanfare during his first term in office.
The first of the jumbo jets was supposed to be delivered by 2024, but is running at least three years behind schedule.
Trump enlisted Elon Musk, whose rocket company SpaceX is a long-time rival to Boeing’s space and defense business, to monitor the progress in converting commercial models that were originally destined for a defunct Russian carrier, Bloomberg News reported earlier.
Read More: Musk’s Air Force One Scrutiny Tests Boeing’s Path to Recovery
In a highly unusual move, Musk visited the San Antonio, Texas, base in December where the hulking jets are being retrofitted with missile defense systems, nuclear-hardened communications and deluxe interiors.
The tardy presidential aircraft, a pet project of Trump’s, pose a challenge to the new Boeing CEO given the administration’s sway over everything from exports of its aircraft to the pending certification of its 737 Max 7, Max 10 models, and 777-9 models.
“The president’s clearly not happy with the delivery timing. I think he’s made that well known,” Ortberg said. “And Elon Musk is actually helping us a lot.”
