The heads of state plane will be transferred in the coming days from IAI at Ben Gurion Airport to a compound prepared for it at the Nevatim base. Which were invested in the aircraft and in the establishment of a dedicated squadron in the Air Force designed to operate it and dismantled in the meantime.
The plane, known as the "Wing of Zion", was purchased after a special committee headed by retired judge Eliezer Goldberg ruled that there was justification for purchasing a dedicated plane for the travel of the prime minister, president and foreign minister, both for economic and security reasons.
Until then, prime ministers used to fly an outdated Air Force Boeing 707, which had been converted for this purpose before each flight, and from a certain point on, planes were leased from commercial companies for each trip.
The president and foreign minister still fly regular airlines.
Following the public criticism following the decision to purchase a dedicated aircraft for the heads of state, it was decided to purchase a relatively outdated Boeing 767 aircraft from the Australian company Quantes.
The aircraft, whose debut flight was in June 2000, was cheaper than executive jets of a similar size from the Boeing BBJ series or the Airbus ACJ.
In retrospect, however, it turned out that the attempt to save had the opposite effect, as the upgrade costs of the aircraft swelled far beyond the budget originally planned for it.
During the negotiations on the formation of the government, one of the conditions set by Yair Lapid was the cessation of the "Wing of Zion" project. Of tens of millions of shekels - dismantled.
Lapid stuck to his decision even though a huge sum has already been invested in the project and it is not possible to sell the aircraft at a reasonable price, given the fact that it is an outdated model that has no demand in the executive jet market.
Participated in the preparation of the article: Lilach Shoval
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