Romney's Campaign Plane Dismantled

Active Aero, the small Michigan-based company behind Mitt Romney’s campaign plane, has some cleaning up to do.

Soon after Romney de-planed the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 for the last time Tuesday evening, the firm began the job of removing alterations he had made to the aircraft, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports.

That means removing the red fabric on one of the seat’s headrests embroidered with “The Gov.” Workers will rip off the “Believe In America” insignias stenciled on each side of the plane and give its exterior a fresh paint-job. They’ll even reconfigure the seats, where Romney, his top brass, and a host of other characters rode out flights along the 2012 campaign trail.

Alterations to presidential campaign planes, and their eventual removal, are nothing new. In 2008, Obama had a Boeing 757 retrofitted with plush seating and replaced the American flag on the plane’s tail fin with an Obama logo, causing an uproar among some critics.

The first step to restoring Romney’s plane is a “thorough cleaning,” an Active Aero spokeswoman told BusinessWeek.

Though flight attendants described the former Massachusetts Governor as “low maintenance,” according to the spokeswoman, there’s likely some crumbs to clear out: “Romney has been spotted late at night with a flashlight,” the LA Times reports, “rummaging through one overhead compartment that holds favorite snacks such as pretzels, crisps, pita chips and, at one time, beef jerky (a gift from the actual Jack Link), which he passed out to reporters during one of his last visits to the back of the plane in late September.”