Boris Johnson flies the flag: RAF jumbo jet gets patriotic paint job in red, white and blue for Prime Minister to use on trips abroad
- The grey Voyager is being painted the colours of the Union Jack in Cambridge
- Cost of repainting the plane is expected to be in the tens of thousands of pounds
- An RAF source said: ‘It’s going to be a Voyager with a paint job. Boris and others will use it to go around the world and wave the British flag’
Boris Johnson is getting a red, white and blue RAF transport jet so he and senior royals can fly the flag abroad.
The grey Voyager aircraft is being painted in the colours of the Union Jack at an airport in Cambridge.
The cost of repainting the plane is expected to be in the tens of thousands of pounds, sources said.
One told Sky News the paint job sounded like something ‘from Austin Powers’ – the hit comedy films featuring a British spy, played by Mike Myers, who drives a Jaguar E-type in the colours of the Union Jack.
Pictured: How the Royal Air Force Airbus Voyager could look after its makeover
An RAF source said: ‘It’s going to be a Voyager with a paint job. Boris and others will use it to go around the world and wave the British flag.
‘It will be diplomatic and it will be appropriate. I imagine it will be in great demand when it gets its new and smart paint job.’
But the source dismissed claims it would be in the style of Austin Powers, adding: ‘The aircraft will not be a flying Union Jack. It won’t be the whole of the airplane, it will be a part of it.’ A defence source added that the new design would be ‘understated’.
Red, white and blue will be painted on the rear of its fuselage and up the fin. It is expected to be unveiled in the coming days.
The interior of the Voyager had a £10million makeover in 2016, when David Cameron was prime minister. Mr Johnson and other ministers, as well as members of the Royal Family, will be allowed to use the plane, which will also continue to be used as a refuelling aircraft.
An RAF source said the plane could be changed back to grey ‘very quickly’ if deemed necessary in a wartime scenario.
File photo dated 25/07/17 of an RAF Voyager used by the Prime Minister and members of the royal family which is being repainted in the colours of the Union flag
‘It will have a lot of functionalities. If we went to war, and all the assets needed to deploy to the Middle East for example, we would change the colour,’ they said.
The RAF source noted that planes were painted a sandy shade of pink for the Gulf wars.
In May 2018 Mr Johnson asked why the Voyager needed to be grey as he said he needed his own plane in order to boost Britain’s post-Brexit trade prospects. Speaking when he was foreign secretary, he said he and other Cabinet ministers needed another aircraft as the Voyager, used by Mr Cameron when he was prime minister, was rarely available.
He said: ‘What I will say about the Voyager, I think it’s great, but it seems to be very difficult to get hold of… I don’t know who uses it, but it never seems to be available.’
Mr Johnson added that it was ‘striking’ such a plane did not yet exist and suggested that it could be a different colour.
He added: ‘And also, why does it have to be grey? The taxpayers won’t want us to have some luxurious new plane. But I certainly think it’s striking that we don’t seem to have access to such a thing at the moment.’
A spokesman for the RAF said: ‘An RAF Voyager is currently in Cambridgeshire for pre- planned works.’