747-8 chosen to replace air force 1

[tdracer]

Intruder, the AF1 work wasn't done by what is now Spirit - it was done by the military division. The military Boeing Wichita was recently closed and the work moved to other locations.

Lots of upset people in Wichita when that happened - apparently they had been lead to believe the 767-2C to KC-46 conversion work was going to be done there.

[Una Due Tfc]

Assume there'll be a second airframe purchased eventually?

[tdracer]

Assume there'll be a second airframe purchased eventually?

The press reports say "two replacement jets" so the answer would be yes

[con-pilot]

"Airforce1, descending to FL 270 due to icing"

If you are referring to the engine icing issue, there is a fix for that. It basically modifies the engine software to open the variable bleed valves to eject ice crystals. With that software change the limitation is much less onerous. Basically only applicable above 37,500 feet in areas of large mesoscale convective systems, typically found in the tropics. They are just waiting for further validation of the software change before full removal of the limitation.

Besides that, the 747-800 can use airports that the A-380 cannot.