WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has come, gone and returned to the White House, but Boeing Co. still hasn’t delivered the new Air Force One jet that he’s eager to board after it’s painted in a red, white and blue color scheme of his own invention.

“They can never finish the damn thing,” he complained last month, a day before Boeing’s chief executive officer, Kelly Ortberg, said he was welcoming help from billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s favorite slasher of red tape, to “get the president his airplanes.”

But what’s keeping Boeing from completing the seemingly straightforward task of turning two already built Boeing 747s into planes fit for a president, sending the project more than $2.7 billion over budget?

About a dozen technical obstacles, according to the Air Force, from flaws in cockpit and passenger windows to cracked fuselage structures, excessive noise and the required certification of the unique planes’ flight handling characteristics.

Boeing and the Air Force “are working together to mitigate these equally prioritized risks, of which all are required to be resolved/mitigated before the aircraft can be accepted,” the service said in a statement. They are “representative of typical discoveries development programs encounter during a program life cycle.”

Boeing started modifying the first aircraft in February 2020 and the second in June 2020. The two jetliners, which were originally destined for a defunct Russian carrier, will be equipped with elaborate — and heavyweight — amenities, from a presidential office and bedroom to extensive secure communications systems and classified defensive capabilities.

The current official schedule — set in June 2022 after initial delays — calls for delivery of the first plane in September 2026 and the second in February 2027. Both dates reflected delays of about two years from the original contractual dates for the aircraft.

That schedule calls for turning the aircraft’s power on for the first time this July and taking a first test flight in March 2026. But those milestones will slip once the Air Force revises its official schedule after Boeing submits its update of the program’s status by mid-June, officials said.

The planes, designated VC-25, are intended to carry top officials such as the vice president and are designated Air Force One only when the president is aboard.

Among the to-do items yet to be completed for the planes, according to the Air Force:

—Handling: There’s risk in changing the “outer mold line,” or skin, of a commercial 747 for the VC-25, which requires verification that its flying qualities aren’t affected. Boeing has performed an analysis under its contract that demonstrated acceptable handling characteristics. Still, that modeling has yet to be validated in Air Force-supervised flight tests and then certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

—Staff shortages: A high turnover of structural mechanics “led to a significant staff shortage,” resulting in a backlog of tasks such as routing wiring throughout the aircraft, exacerbated when some of that work needed to be redone. “Boeing continues to recruit and hire structures mechanics within a very competitive labor market,” the Air Force said.

—Windows: UK-based GKN Aerospace initially had difficulties making the passenger windows, but certification of new ones to meet the plane’s demanding specifications is expected this summer. PPG Industries, the contractor making the cockpit and flight deck windows, has demonstrated “poor performance,” the service said. Boeing, speaking for PPG, had no additional comment.

—Interior noise: The complicated interior design and layout increased noise. Boeing “is assessing and implementing solutions to mitigate the challenge,” the service said.

—Cracked reinforcing “stringers”: Inspectors have discovered cracks in reinforcing structures that run lengthwise along the aircraft’s fuselage. Although there’s no impact to aircraft safety, the Air Force said, “these cracks are being repaired by Boeing in accordance with FAA-approved procedures.”

In addition, delivery has been delayed by problems “including impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, interiors supplier transition, manpower limitations, wiring design timelines, and projected test execution rates,” the Air Force said.

“I’m surprised at the scope of the issues, but I’m also surprised that relatively normal, minor issues with components such as insulation and windows are being identified as key risks,” said Glenn McDonald, an aerospace expert at AeroDynamic Advisory who reviewed the lingering concerns at Bloomberg’s request. “This is odd,” McDonald added, that “so many ‘stringers’ have cracks.”

Boeing — which has already rung up about $2.79 billion in cost overruns on the planes that it must absorb under the fixed-price contract it negotiated with Trump during his first term — said in a statement that “we continue to make progress on this program and are working closely with our customer to resolve these issues.” It said a nagging difficulty in getting workforce security clearances has been resolved.

Although Boeing hasn’t publicly criticized the Air Force or White House, several former company officials, who asked not to be identified, said the contractor has been frustrated at times by changing requirements that forced it to revise its engineering plans for the planes.

Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s former acquisition chief, said in a statement that “the primary concern I had with the Air Force One program was establishing a clear picture of the engineering work remaining to complete the design process. Boeing’s inability to clearly spell out how much work remained made it profoundly difficult to develop a successful strategy to deliver the program.”

“They actually made progress in staffing the program during the time I was in office, but the engineering was lagging,” Hunter said. “The challenges they were having with engineering were tied to achieving airworthiness approval.”

(Julie Johnsson contributed to this report.)

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