US President Donald Trump has said he is thrilled to make his first flight aboard his new Air Force One plane, thanking Qatar for the gift of the luxury jet.
Trump said the United States "couldn't build a plane like this."
"To be honest with you, I'm excited about the first flight. Nobody's ever seen anything like it," Trump told journalists on Wednesday travelling with him, including an AFP photographer, ahead of a trip to North Dakota.
The 80-year-old president is due to attend an event at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library as part of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.
"They just completed it. They made it appropriate for a president, that means the security and all of the different bells and whistles they put on. Very complex stuff, but it's really quite something," Trump said at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.
Gone is the trademark light blue hull that helped Air Force One blend into the sky.
The refurbished jet is painted to Trump’s preferred colour scheme of a navy belly and red and gold stripes.
It has the luxury features that the president believes a commander-in-chief’s entourage should have — plush carpets, lie-flat seats, wood panelling and a presidential seal on the seat belts, according to reported tours of the plane.
Trump told reporters that he was proud of the luxurious plane. "You can do two things: You can low-key it, or you can show it," he said.
'We couldn't build a plane like'
The Gulf emirate, which is playing a key role as a mediator along with Pakistan in talks between the US and Iran, donated the jet last year. It has since undergone major modifications and testing.
The Air Force has said that it did little to change the cabin layout of the plane and that it spent less than $400 million on security upgrades.
The first flight also comes just a day after Trump faced further ethical scrutiny over filings that showed he earned around $1.2 billion dollars from his family's cryptocurrency ventures in his first year back in power.
But Trump dismissed any suggestion of impropriety, saying the cost to US taxpayers of adapting the Qatari jet was "very little relative to what it would cost if we did it a different way."
"Frankly, we couldn't build a plane like this because we wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money necessary. They spent top dollars," Trump told reporters.
Trump said he had asked the Emir of Qatar if he could use the plane but "he said 'no, no, I'd like to make a contribution to the country, so it was very nice."
The plane will serve as a stopgap until Boeing delivers two new purpose-built Air Force Ones, which are expected to be delivered in two years after a series of delays and cost overruns.
