Out-of-town pool report/supplemental color pool about the bridge AF1

Since many people have asked this question since yesterday, here is a supplemental color pool about the interiors aboard the “bridge” Air Force One that was donated by Qatar. Please note that your pool hasn’t seen the rest of the plane, only the press cabin; for a broader look at some of the interiors, some on he Trump White House staff have on past trips aboard this plane posted images of one of the staff areas.

As for the press cabin:

The commissioned AF1s had press cabins on the right side of the plane. On the bridge plane, the cabin is on the left-hand side.

The seats are in better shape and much more spacious than the ones on the 1990 Boeing jets that make up the commissioned planes earmarked for presidential travel until the long-delayed planes intended to replace them are finished being produced. There are large individual storage bins overhead, unlike on the other planes. There are also outlets at every seat to charge laptops/phones - a huge difference from the other planes.

The seats are further apart than on the older planes, and they can be tilted far back. There is also a leg rest with a silver footrest piece attached that can raise, as if on business class of a commercial flight. The chairs are medium brown leather trim for the armrests and headrests, beige upholstery with a diamond-shaped pattern in rust and brown, alternated and overlaid on the beige. There are reading lamps with a long brown cord tethered to each seat, with a silver cap over the bulb and a button to turn on. The trays at each seat are a dark lacquered wood.

There are individual televisions in the back of each seat, which were tuned to Fox News but could be switched to a live feed of cameras outside the fuselage, as well as a location map of the trip.

The rug is a gold-yellow, with a pattern of three thick bands - two dark autumn leaves-colored stripes with a white one in between, like an ice cream sandwich - stretching horizontally across the plane, for the back two cabins.

On the opposite side of the press cabin is a staff and USSS cabin, but unlike the older planes, which had the division of the two as part of the build-out, these cabins at the back of the plane are separated by a thick fabric curtain, from plane floor to ceiling. The curtain serving as a partition ends about a half inch off the floor so the shoes of staff, or their shadows, can be seen going by. The curtains are a little complicated to navigate either if someone is walking and there’s turbulence or when the pool is getting in position for a POTUS gaggle (which has not happened on this plane on this trip so far). People can end up falling into the curtain and there’s nothing keeping them from ending up in the other cabin other than their own sense of balance.

The door at the front of the press cabin is locked, and POTUS has on past trips gaggled by walking around to the back of the plane and standing in the doorway. The presidential seal that’s hanging now is pretty nondescript, and made of fabric, as opposed to wood with gold accents like on the other planes.

The ride itself is smoother, particularly on takeoff. But a noticeable difference is how cold it is on board. The air conditioning is blanket-worthy.

(thanks again to Josh Wingrove for observation help)