Air Force One is the air traffic control call sign of any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of
the United States.[1] Since
1990, the presidential fleet has consisted of two specifically configured, highly
customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft—tail
numbers 28000 and 29000—with Air Force designation VC-25A.
While these planes are referred to as Air Force One only while the president is on board, the term is commonly used to
describe either of the two aircraft normally used and maintained by the U.S. Air Force solely for the president.
An Air Force aircraft carrying the Vice President of the United
States is designated as Air Force Two. Conversely, when the president needs
to fly to locations that have runways too short for the VC-25A, the president will be assigned one of the Boeing C-32s; Lockheed C-140 Jetstars were also used in this role,
notably by Ronald Reagan. As always, when the president is on the C-32A, the plane will
fly as Air Force One.
History
Theodore Roosevelt became the first president to fly in a plane on
October 11, 1910. At the time he was no longer in office,
having been succeeded by William Howard Taft. However, prior to World War II, overseas and cross-country presidential travel was rare. Lack of wireless telecommunication and quick transportation made
long-distance travel impractical, as it took up much time and isolated the president from events in Washington, D.C.
The first "flying presidents"
In the 1940s and 1950s, air travel became more convenient. The first president to fly in an aircraft while in office was
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who traveled on a Boeing
314 flying boat to the 1943
Casablanca Conference on the progress of World War II. The threat from the
Kriegsmarine's U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic made air travel the preferred method of transportation. The
continuing threat from submarines established air travel as a usual means of intercontinental
transportation for the president.
The first aircraft officially designated for presidential flight was the C-87A
Liberator Express, a reconfigured B-24 bomber.
This plane was called Guess Where Two. However, after a different C-87A crashed, Guess Where Two was no longer used
for Roosevelt; the Secret Service reconfigured a C-54 Skymaster as a replacement. This
plane was nicknamed the Sacred Cow and included a sleeping area, radio telephone, and retractable elevator for Roosevelt's
wheelchair. It carried the president to several important events, most notably the
Yalta Conference. The Secret Service put the C-87A plane to use by having
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
use it instead.
After Roosevelt died in spring 1945, Vice President Harry S Truman became the
President. He replaced the C-54 with a modified C-118 Liftmaster, calling it the
Independence, possibly in reference to President Truman's hometown of Independence, Missouri. This was the first aircraft acting as Air Force One that had a
distinctive exterior–a bald eagle head painted on its nose.
The presidential call sign was established for security purposes during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The change stemmed from a 1953
incident where an Eastern Airlines commercial flight (8610) had the same call sign as
a flight the president was on (Air Force 8610). The planes accidentally entered the same airspace, and after the incident the
unique call sign "Air Force One" was introduced for the presidential aircraft.
Eisenhower also introduced four other propeller aircraft, the Lockheed C-121 Constellations (VC-121E) to presidential service. These planes were named
Columbine II and Columbine III by Mamie Eisenhower after the
columbine, the official state flower of
Colorado, her adopted home state. Two Aero Commanders were also
added to the fleet and earned the distinction of being the smallest Air Force Ones ever. President Eisenhower also upgraded
Air Force One's technology by adding an air-to-ground telephone and an air-to-ground teletype machine. Towards the end of Eisenhower's term, in 1958,
the Air Force added three Boeing 707 jets (designated
SAM 970, 971, and 972), 707-153 models, into the fleet. "Ike" became the first president to use the 707 during his "Flight to
Peace" Goodwill tour, from December 3 through 22, 1959. He visited 11 Asian nations, flying
22,000 miles in 19 days, about twice as fast as he would have on Columbine.
Air Force One usually does not have fighter aircraft to escort the presidential aircraft over the United States. In June,
1974, Syrian fighter jets intercepted Air Force One to act as escorts. However, the Air Force One crew were not informed in
advance and, as a result, took evasive action including a dive.[2]
Boeing 707s as Air Force One
-
Presidential air travel entered the jet age during the presidency of John F. Kennedy.
In October 1962, the Kennedy administration took delivery of a modified long-range
707—Special Air Mission (SAM) 26000, although he had used the Eisenhower-era jets for trips to Canada, France, Austria and
the United Kingdom.
The Air Force had attempted a special presidential livery of their own design: a scheme in red
and metallic gold, with the nation's name in block letters. Kennedy felt the plane appeared too regal and on advice from his
wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he contacted the French-born American
industrial designer Raymond Loewy for help in
designing a new livery and interiors for the 707 jet.[3] Loewy met with the president, and recorded that his earliest research on the project took him to
the National Archives where he looked at the first printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, and saw the country's name set
widely spaced and in upper case in a typeface called Caslon. He chose to expose the
silver aluminum fuselage on the bottom side, and used two blues; a slate-blue associated with the early republic and the
presidency, and a more contemporary cyan blue to represent the present and future. The presidential seal was added to both sides of the fuselage near the nose, a
large American flag was painted on the tail, and the sides of the plane read UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The result
of Loewy's work won immediate praise from the president, the press, and the jet's livery became a global icon. The 707 markings
were adapted for the larger 747 Air Force One in 1989.
SAM 26000 was in service from 1962 to 1998, serving Presidents Kennedy to Clinton, but
was replaced by another Boeing 707, Special Air Mission 27000 in 1972.
Richard Nixon was the first president to use this, and the plane would continue serving
every president since, until it too was replaced by two 747 jumbo jets (SAM 28000 and 29000) in 1990. SAM 27000 was decommissioned in 2001 by President George W. Bush, flown to San Bernardino
International Airport in California, and later driven in pieces to the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley where it was reassembled and is currently on permanent display.
Transition to Boeing 747s
- See also: Boeing VC-25
Though Ronald Reagan's two terms as president saw no major changes to Air Force
One, the fabrication of the current 747s began during his presidency. The first aircraft was delivered in 1990, during the administration of George H.W. Bush. Delays
were experienced to allow for additional work to protect the aircraft from electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
One of the most dramatic episodes aboard Air Force One happened during the September 11, 2001 attacks. President George W. Bush
was interrupted at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, after the attack on the World Trade
Center South Tower in New York City. Bush flew on Air Force One from
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to
Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before
returning to Washington. The next day, officials at the White House and the Justice Department claimed that Bush did this because
there was "specific and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were also intended targets."[4] The White House later could not confirm evidence of a threat
made against Air Force One, and subsequent investigation found the original claim to be a result of miscommunication.[5]
Past planes that served as Air Force One
Several presidential aircraft which have formerly served as Air Force One are on display in the presidential hangar of the
National Museum of the United States Air Force at
Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton,
Ohio (Sacred Cow, Independence, Columbine III, SAM 26000, and other smaller presidential aircraft), as well as at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington (earlier VC-137B SAM 970).
United Airlines has the distinction of being the only commercial airline to have
operated Executive One, the designation given to a civilian flight on which the
U.S. President is aboard. On December 23, 1973, then-President Richard Nixon flew as a passenger aboard a Washington Dulles to Los
Angeles flight. It was explained by his staff that this was done in order to conserve fuel by not having to fly the usual
Boeing 707 Air Force aircraft.[6]
On March 8, 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an
unmarked Gulfstream III while another aircraft with the call sign "Air Force One" flew on
the same route a few minutes later. This diversion was reported by several US press outlets and is not a secret event. This was
presumably done as a diversion in case terrorists attempted to shoot down the aircraft that the president was aboard.
The Boeing 707 that served as Air Force One from the Nixon years to the current George Bush administration
(SAM 27000) is on display in Simi
Valley, California at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. The Library's Air Force One Pavilion was opened
to the public on October 24, 2005.
A VC-118A Liftmaster used by John F. Kennedy is on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson,
Arizona.
Analogs in other countries
-
Although other nations use specially equipped aircraft to transport their heads of state, no other mode of transportation for
government executives is as well-known as Air Force One.[citation needed] Whenever the Pope flies on a plane, it is nicknamed "Shepherd One".
Typically, it is a chartered Alitalia Jet, however, the tradition is for the Pope to fly to the country he is visiting on a
chartered Alitalia jet and to return on a jet belonging to a flag carrier from the visited nation.
Popular culture
Air Force One is a prominent symbol of the American presidency and its power.[3] With the White House and presidential seal, it is one of the most familiar presidential symbols. It is
also famous worldwide, so much so that when British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated a desire
for a similar personal air transport, the press immediately dubbed it "Blair Force One."[7][8][9]
Air Force One has often appeared in popular culture and fiction, most notably as the setting of the 1997 action film Air Force One
. In the film, Kazakh terrorists hijack Air Force One and hold the president and other passengers as hostages. The film was noted for its fancifully-exaggerated depiction of the plane's capabilities; for example,
the real Air Force One does not officially carry an escape capsule. A similar contraption was
featured in the 1981 film Escape from New
York.
Air Force One has been featured in Robert Serling's novel The
President's Plane Is Missing, subsequently adapted for a TV movie and its sequel Airforce
One Is Haunted. The latter describes supernatural visits to the incumbent
President by the ghost of
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
References
Books
- Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold:
1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
- Albertazzie, Ralph, and Jerald F. Terhorst. Flying White House: The Story of Air Force One. Book Sales: 1979. ISBN
0-698-10930-9.
- Braun, David. Q&A: U.S. Presidential Jet Air Force One. National Geographic News, May
29, 2003
- Dorr, Robert F. Air Force One. Motorbooks International: 2002. ISBN 0-7603-1055-6.
- Hardesty, Von. Air Force One: The Aircraft that Shaped the Modern Presidency. Northword Press: 2003. ISBN
1-55971-894-3.
- Harris, Tom. How Air Force One
Works. HowStuffWorks.com Accessed October 10, 2006.
- Technical Order 00-105E-9, Segment 9, Chapter 7 [1]
- United States Air Force. Air Force One Fact Sheet. July 2003.
- Walsh, Kenneth T. Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their Planes. Hyperion: 2003. ISBN
1-4013-0004-9.
External links
Photographs and other multimedia
See also
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