Weighing 416 tons, it is the biggest perk of the presidency, the one that former commanders in chief say they miss the most after leaving office.
Even without the frustrating airline delays of the last several years, what frequent flier wouldn’t regret giving up Air Force One?
It is, after all, the only aircraft in the world outfitted with top-secret anti-missile defenses protecting 4,000 square feet of interior floor space that includes:
A stateroom, conference and dining rooms; private sleeping quarters with a shower in the lavatory; classified communication links in addition to 85 telephones; 20 TVs; an emergency medical center; two gourmet kitchens that can provide up to 100 meals per sitting; and enough freezer space to store 2,000 meals in the event of a war or a national emergency requiring the plane, which can be refueled in flight, to remain airborne indefinitely.
“I was in Germany this summer when President Clinton arrived in Berlin, and nearly everybody ran up to the windows in the terminal to get a glimpse of Air Force One,” said Jeff Underwood, the resident historian at the U.S. Air Force Museum at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. “It’s a very powerful symbol because you have no doubt who is on board. And it is a symbol of freedom, more so than just the presidency.” (Though the plane flies without the president, it is called Air Force one only when he is aboard. Without him it has a regular flight designation.)
Clinton, who used Air Force One more than any other president to enhance his own political power and the superpower status of the U.S., made few changes to the aircraft in his eight years in office. He did, however, leave for George W. Bush a compact-disc player that Clinton installed next to his desk aboard one of the two identical Boeing 747s that since 1990 have served as the presidential plane, according to the White House.
Franklin D. Roosevelt took the first flight as an incumbent president in 1943–to Casablanca, Morocco, aboard a Boeing 314 Clipper seaplane for the first leg and then a Douglas C-54 Skymaster in a 90-hour trip, to meet with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and plan the Allied invasion of Europe to halt the Nazi advance.
Though Roosevelt preferred to travel by train or on battleships, the C-54, nicknamed the Sacred Cow, was customized for FDR with an elevator to lift the wheelchair-bound president on and off the aircraft. He traveled on the plane only once more, to the U.S.S.R. in 1945 for the Yalta Conference, deciding after enduring stopovers and long hours in the air that flying was for the birds.
Fifty-eight years later, the comfort levels aboard a much more luxurious Air Force One are limited only by the new First Family’s imagination.
So long as President Bush doesn’t try to trade in his American-made 747 for the much larger A380 that the European consortium Airbus Industrie is developing, the independent counsel’s office shouldn’t mind a little redecorating.
How about an in-flight barbeque grill, with an external vent, so the Bushes’ chef can rustle up some Texas-style pulled pork?
President Lyndon Johnson waited a respectful period of time before hauling a Texas-sized reclining swivel chair and a desk that could rise up or stow away at the push of a button aboard his Boeing 707. It helped transform the Flying Oval Office that former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy decorated with oil paintings and fine bone china into a smoke-filled bunker dubbed “the throne room” by LBJ staffers.
Johnson also replaced some of the partitions aboard the plane with see-through dividers so he could keep better tabs on what other people were doing. LBJ might have failed to realize, however, that passengers also could watch the president as he stripped down to his skivvies after spending a hot day in the heartland, which was Johnson’s way of rolling up his sleeves while working at his desk.
(Air Force One holds 76 passengers and 26 crew for a total of 102 people versus from 366 to 452 passengers on a commercial 747-200.)
In a twist of irony, Richard Nixon removed the tape-recording system that Johnson had wired inside the Flying Oval Office to record all incoming and outgoing calls, though history reveals that Nixon would have been wiser to leave the White House unwired as well.
Nancy Reagan ordered changes to the presidential suite on her husband’s plane so the front of the cabin could be completely darkened for sleeping. Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One was also known for having an endless supply of jelly beans on board for himself and for sending friends, VIPs and favored journalists home with the best souvenirs in memory.
Jimmy Carter, who failed to tame double-digit inflation during his watch, regarded Air Force One as a no-frills airline. The man from Plains, Ga., snuffed out the custom of giving guests on Air Force One packs of cigarettes embossed with a silhouette of the White House. The presidential order wasn’t so much based on any health concerns, but rather the frugal Carter didn’t want to look like he was frittering away the taxpayers’ money while asking Americans to put on sweaters and turn down their thermostats.
Marc Schulman, who as president of Chicago-based Eli’s Cheesecakes has supplied desserts on Air Force One from Presidents Reagan to Clinton, said being aboard the president’s plane is “one of those over-the-top things that you experience in life.”
“It is probably the most personal way you would get to see the president,” Schulman said. “You see where the president sleeps and where he works in the Flying Oval Office. It’s like being in someone’s den.”
Retired Air Force Col. James Swindal, who piloted the Boeing 707 that was Air Force One for President John F. Kennedy, recalls Jackie Kennedy being centrally involved in giving the plane a civilian look, in contrast to the strictly military appearance of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Lockheed VC-121E transport plane.
“Mrs. Kennedy picked out the colors for the exterior of the plane, and she made the decisions about the layout of the stateroom and the other interior decorations in the passenger compartment,” said Swindal, 83, now living in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
Industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who is known for the Studebaker Avanti, stylized the distinctive blue-and-white color scheme that the first lady selected and emblazoned on the presidential seal just below the nose on each side of the plane. An American flag was painted on the tail, and instead of military markings, the Boeing 707 was the first presidential plane to be identified along both sides of the fuselage by the words “United States of America.”
Despite Jackie Kennedy’s use of curtains and original oil paintings to provide accent, photographs depict the inside of the plane as being 1960s-style nondescript.
“The walls were beige with a dark oak-like trim and the seats were light beige. It all looked like furniture you would find in somebody’s cubicle at work,” said Underwood, of the U.S. Air Force Museum, which houses the 707 and several other presidential planes. “It looked comfortable, but it certainly wasn’t Camelot.”
Unlike modern Air Force One planes, the private area for the First Family on the Kennedy 707 was in the tail section, near the galley. The aft section was traditionally chosen to keep the president as far as possible from the noise generated by piston engines mounted on the wings. But the Kennedy plane was the first presidential aircraft powered by much quieter jet engines, removing the need for the president to ride in the back of the bus. Nixon, complaining about the smell of jet exhaust fumes in the rear of the plane, moved his private quarters upfront.
Swindal, who in November 1963 flew the slain president back to Washington from Dallas, said that during Kennedy’s brief time in office, the president visited the cockpit only rarely because the back brace he wore made it difficult to maneuver under the low ceiling on the flight deck.
“The Kennedys invited me to join them for lunch a couple of times, but I couldn’t ever do it,” Swindal said pensively. “You fellows in the media would’ve had a field day if I were back there eating steak in the president’s dining room and a near-miss occurred.”
SECURITY IS JOB 1
Vice President Lyndon Johnson walked briskly aboard Air Force One on Nov. 22, 1963, at Love Field in Dallas and ordered the crew of the Boeing 707 to lower all the window shades to prevent a possible sniper from getting off a shot at him. Johnson then took the oath of office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy earlier in the day.
“The windows were not bulletproof,” said James Swindal, who piloted JFK’s Air Force One. “Nobody thought we would ever need it.”
The slaying of the president and the turbulent years that followed, through the Cold War and the Vietnam War, led to a re-examination of how the Secret Service safeguards the president. The review in part resulted in Air Force One becoming more secure from a possible enemy attack or a terrorist strike than the White House.
Independent experts who monitor the Pentagon have written about highly classified anti-missile systems, with offensive and defensive capabilities, that are believed to be outfitted on the two Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One.
The president’s plane reportedly has experimental technology that locks the aircraft’s radar on a missile that is as far as 60 miles away and saturates the weapon with electronic data and radio waves. The purpose is simple: overwhelm the missile with more incoming information than it can process. The result is that the missile loses track of the heat-seeking source its guidance system is bearing down upon–usually a jet engine–and the weapon wobbles off-course and crashes.
Journalists who cover national defense and other visitors aboard Air Force One also have noticed pods extending under the aircraft’s four wing-mounted engines. The devices are thought to make it more difficult for heat-seeking missiles to find their targets.
In addition, an escort of Air Force F-15 fighter planes, though never seen in the vicinity of Air Force One, is believed to tag along when the president’s plane is flying outside the U.S. The commander in chief can rest easy knowing that any threat to Air Force One would first have to outrun the F-15 pilots.
Officials at the White House, the Pentagon, Andrews Air Force Base and Boeing Co. declined to answer questions about the two Air Force One planes, which are hangared at Andrews. Authorities, citing security concerns, turned down a Tribune request to tour and photograph Air Force One at O’Hare International Airport this month on a visit by President Clinton to Chicago.
PRESIDENTIAL FLIGHT
The first plane outfitted for presidential flight was a C-87A Liberator Express. Eleanor Roosevelt flew on the plane, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt never did.
1943
Roosevelt makes the first flight by a president in office aboard a Boeing 314 Clipper. It was not officially designated an Air Force One plane.
1944
Presidential air transport begins when a C-54 Skymaster- the “Sacred Cow”- was put into service for Roosevelt. It was equipped with an elevator to lift Roosevelt on and off the plane. It could accommodate 15 passengers and held a conference room with a large desk. Roosevelt flew on the “Sacred Cow” twice.
1947-53
The next presidential plane is the “Independence,” a DC-6 Liftmaster, which transported Harry S Truman.
1953
The plane becomes officially known as Air Force One to distinguish President Dwight Eisenhower’s flight number from an Eastern Airlines flight number.
Aug. 26, 1959
President Eisenhower goes to Germany on the first jet flight. It was a Boeing 707-120 series.
1962
A C-137C purchased for use as Air Force One enters service with the tail number 26000. It is perhaps the most widely known and most historically significant presidential aircraft. Tail number 26000 is the aircraft that carried President Kennedy to Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963, and returned the body to Washington, D.C., after his assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office as the 36th president on board the aircraft at Love Field in Dallas.
– Air Force One gets its distinctive livery, a blue-and-white paint scheme with the presidential seal.
Oct. 10, 1962
The first jet aircraft designed to be used as Air Force One is delivered to Andrews Air Force Base. It was a Boeing 707.
1972
President Richard M. Nixon makes historic visits aboard 26000 to the People’s Republic of China in February and to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in May.
Sept. 6, 1990
The first Boeing 747-200B’s-designated the VC-25A by the military-flies as Air Force One, transporting President George Bush to Kansas, Florida and back to Washington, D.C.
1995
A second VC-25A, tail number 29000, transports President Bill Clinton and former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bush to Israel for the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
‘FLYING OVAL OFFICE’
The 747s are built at the Boeing Everett, Wash., facility, then flown to the company’s Wichita, Kan., facility for configuration as Air Force One. The aircraft were extensively modified to meet presidential requirements. The flying “Oval Office” has 4,000 square feet of interior floor space, which features a conference/dining room, quarters for the president and the first lady and an office area for senior staff members.
The facts
– Crew 26 (passenger/crew capacity: 102)
– Model 747-200B
– Engines General Electric CF6-80C2B1
– Thrust rating 56,700 pounds each engine
– Long-range mission takeoff gross weight 833,000 pounds
– Maximum landing weight 630,000 pounds
– Fuel capacity 53,611 gallons
– Range 7,800 statute miles
– Wing span 195 feet 8 inches
– Length 231 feet 10 inches
– Height 63 feet 5 inches
– Service ceiling 45,100 feet
Sources: Boeing, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, U.S. Air Force.
