RI-1 Air Force One

Finally it is confirmed that Indonesia once again will have dedicated aircraft to be used as official presidential aircraft, the new aircraft will be expected to be delivered on August 2013. Indonesia government has signed the official agreement with Boeing Commercial Airplanes as the manufacturer on 2010.

Actually the story of presidential aircraft is not a 'new' thing in Indonesia, few decades back during President Soekarno era, Indonesia already have dedicated aircraft and chopper that being used to transport our founding-father whenever and wherever he goes.

At that time, our presidential aircraft were consist of few armadas of Lockheed C-140 JetStar. C-140 is a business jet produced from the early 1960s through the 1970s. All were operates under TNI AU command, I am not sure where it was stationed, probably in Skadron Udara 17 VVIP at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base.

If you are in Yogyakarta, just spend some time to visit Dirgantara Mandala museum which located in the same complex with Adisucipto airport. There you can see, maybe the one and only remain of C-140 JetStar 'SAPTAMARGA'. Below pictures were taken during my visit to that museum on 2010.

During the era of President Soeharto, we don't have any dedicated presidential aircraft in service. To support his travel, President Soeharto policy was always to have it rented from national flag carrier like Garuda Indonesia or Pelita Air Service.

Here is the future:

Indonesia has ordered 1 (one) Boeing Business Jet 2 or BBJ 2. 

BBJ 2 was developed from the airframe of the famous Boeing 737-800 series.

Changes from the normal 737 include:

• Blended winglets for additional fuel economy (5–7% improvement) as standard (winglets are optional on airliner 737s)
• Self-contained airstairs for disembarking at airports with limited ground support
• Additional fuel tanks, for intercontinental range

Please refer to below links for more details about aircraft's specification;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Business_Jet 

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/bbj/

 

 

With extended 6 fuel tanks for BBJ 2 than regular B737-800 series, it can increases the distance and durationcof flights up to 10 hours non-stop flight or up to 10,000 km, Amazing !

In my opinion, the strategic decision to purchase this presidential aircraft is an 'popular' decision, though it can reduce the operational cost per year, the most important thing is, it will gain our 'NATION's PRIDE' in this region.