THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy's dream of having his own presidential jet to rival America's Air Force One are about to come true with "Air Sarko One", a £150 million aircraft complete with bedroom, air filter system so he can smoke cigars, and a shower.
The specially upholstered Airbus A330-200, has just been taken on its first test flight in Bordeaux, southwestern France, with all internal fittings due for completion by October.
The plane will also include a 12-man meeting room, 60 business class seats, top-grade encrypted communications systems, a reinforced fuselage and missile decoy system.
A fleet of smaller jets is also to replace the current Falcon 50 and 900 models at ministers' disposal. This includes two Falcon 7Xs, models often favoured by the world's jet set.
Presidential air force officials have dubbed it "Air Carla One" after his ex-supermodel wife.
The French leader is understood to have long envied the luxurious conditions in which Barack Obama, the US President flies across the world in his Boeing 747-200B, and has complained that his two smaller Airbus A319s lacked the necessary presidential stature. >>> Henry Samuel in Paris | Friday, July 30, 2010
