IIRC. The contract was awarded quite a while in advance of actual delivery. I believe once USAF accepts the aircraft it then goes to them/contractor for the uniques equipment that must be installed. The installation of that equipment took longer than the actual building of the aircraft. Basically saying the 400 may have been available when it was delivered but not when the contract was first awarded. Al ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nick Laflamme" <dplaflamme@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 7:07 AM Subject: Re: VC-25A's, why not the 747-400 airframe ? > At 11:40 PM 4/9/2003 -0700, , Stanley Powroznik wrote: > >I was always curious as to why the basic 747-200 airframe was chosen for