Emperor Andreas' State Aircraft

On previous state visits or whenever the Emperor went anywhere, he flew on military transports or airships (he used the airship Graf Zeppelin II to travel to Alberta for a brief vacation in 2003) or used sea transport (such as his State Visit to the United States in 1999 when he used the battle cruiser Scharnhorst or his 2010 State Visit to Australia when he used the Knight’s Cross liner Aquitania), but Supreme Grand Marshal Irving recognized the need for Emperor Andreas to have his own purpose-built aircraft. Andreas rarely went on long-distance trips, as he stated he hated commandeering ships or aircraft for his personal use. So, in September 2016, Irving decided to present Emperor Andreas with his own airplane for his birthday the following year. Being as it would transport the Emperor and his retinue all over the world, it would have to be large and capable of round-the-world flight. The design chosen was one that had been scrapped by Boeing: the 747-600. Aircraft designer Johann Gorschmitz bought the blueprints from Boeing and construction began in November 2016.

By 15 May 2017, the massive plane was completed and after trial flights was presented to the Emperor on his 72nd birthday. Emperor Andreas was very pleased by his present, as well he should have been; his new plane outclassed every other head-of-state’s personal transport by quite a bit. The “Führerflieger” as it came to be known was 279 feet long, with a wingspan of 251 feet, a weight of just over 595 tons, and a range of 8,900 miles. It carries a crew of 26 (including 2 pilots (the Emperor’s Personal Pilot (Generalleutnant Curtis Beaudry) and a copilot (a Colonel)), a flight engineer (a Lieutenant Colonel of the Luftwaffe Engineering Corps), navigator (a Lieutenant Colonel), and cabin crew) and has space for 94 passengers. The Emperor’s press retinue are seated on the top deck behind the cockpit, with the entire lower deck devoted to being a ‘Reich Chancellery of the Air’. This includes the Emperor’s private quarters, the Emperor’s office, a conference room, and a scaled-down version of the situation room in the Imperial Chancellery. The service number on the tail (52645) is also the Emperor's Birthday; official aircraft for Supreme Grand Marshal Irving and Reichsführer-SS Günter Heinrich also use the birth dates of their passengers.

The Emperor's personal transport is escorted by the "Reichsfliegergruppe" an entire Gruppe of Aosaka Z-1000 "Anubis" jet fighters. The strength of the group is fifty aircraft in total, though not all of them escort the Emperor's aircraft at one time; usually three Staffels (three groups of five aircraft each) accompany the aircraft at all times. When on the ground in a foreign country, the aircraft is guarded by three companies of Reiches-SS infantry (which fly on a separate transport), with no one approaching the plane without proper authorization.

Andreas first used his new plane in July 2017, when he made his first State Visit to the United States in eighteen years to meet with President Trump, reestablishing diplomatic relations with the United States for the first time since 20 January 2009.

      “Finally, after eight long years, the United States has a leader whom the rest of the world can respect. I greatly look forward to rebuilding diplomatic relations with the United States.”
                                                                                                          - Emperor Andreas in the White House East Room, July 2017