Air Force One
- This article is about the aircraft. For the movie, see Air Force One (movie).
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| Name: | Air Force One |
| Primary function: | Presidential air transport |
| Contractor: | Boeing |
| Power plant: | Four General Electric CF6-80C2B1 jet engines |
| Thrust: | 56,700 lbf (250 kN) per engine |
| Length: | 231 ft, 10 in (70.7 m) |
| Height: | 63 ft, 5 in (19.3 m) |
| Wingspan: | 195 ft, 8 in (59.6 m) |
| Speed: | 630 mph (Mach 0.92) |
| Ceiling: | 45,100 ft (13,746 m) |
| Maximum Takeoff Weight: | 833,000 lb (374,850 kg) |
| Range: | 7,800 statute miles (6,800 nautical miles or 12,550 km) Note: it can be fueled in-flight so it has an essentially limitless range. |
| Crew: | 26 |
| Total capacity: | 102 |
| Introduction: | December 8, 1990 (No. 28000) December 23, 1990 (No. 29000) |
| Deployment: | September 6, 1990 (No. 28000) March 26, 1991 (No. 29000) |
| Inventory: | 2 |
Air Force One is the air traffic control callsign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. 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. These planes are maintained by the U.S. Air Force solely for presidential air transport. The VC-25A is capable of flying 12,550 km (7,800 miles) — roughly one-third of the distance around the world — without refueling and can accommodate more than 70 passengers. From its inception Air Force One has become a symbol of Presidential power and prestige.
Before these planes entered service, two Boeing 707-320B-type aircraft — tail numbers 26000 and 27000—had operated as Air Force One starting in 1962. The Secret Service refers to Air Force One by the codename Angel.
Operation
These aircraft are maintained and operated as military operations by the Presidential Airlift Group, part of Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing, based at Andrews Air Force Base in Suitland, Maryland. The President often flies a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, callsign Marine One, between the Andrews AFB and the White House.
Similarly, a U.S. Army aircraft carrying the President has the callsign Army One; U.S. Navy aircraft are called Navy One. (As of October 2004, the only "Navy One" has been the S-3B Viking that carried President George W. Bush to USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003.) A civilian plane carrying the President has the callsign "Executive One," and a plane carrying a member of the first family will be called "Executive One Foxtrot."
Capability and features
The planes that serve as Air Force One differ from the standard Boeing 747 in size, features, and security precautions. While Air Force One has three floors, like a regular Boeing 747, its interior has been reconfigured for presidential duties. The planes' 4,000 square feet (372 m²) of interior floor space include multiple modifications. The planes' lowest level is mostly cargo space, carrying luggage and the plane's food supply. The food can supply up to 2,000 meals when fully loaded, some of which is stored in freezers. Meals are prepared in two galleys, which together are equipped to feed about 100 people at a time.
The main passenger area is on the second floor, and communications equipment and the cockpit are on the third floor. There are three entrances onboard. Writer Tom Harris notes:
- "Passengers can enter through three doors. Two doors, one at the front of the plane and one at the rear, open onto the lower deck, and one door at the front of the plane opens onto the middle deck. Normally, when you see the president in the news getting on and off Air Force One with a wave, he is using the door onto the middle deck and a rolling staircase has been pulled up to the plane. Journalists normally enter through the rear door, where they immediately climb a staircase to the middle deck. Most of the press area looks something like the first class section of an ordinary jetliner, with comfortable, spaced out seats."
Onboard Air Force One are medical facilities, including a fold-out operating table, emergency medical supplies, and a well-stocked pharmacy. On every flight there is a staff doctor. In addition, there are separate sleeping quarters for guests, senior staff, Secret Service and security personnel, and the news media; the president's executive suite includes a private dressing room, workout room, lavatory, shower, and private office. These offices, including the president's suite, are located predominantly on the right side of the aircraft (while facing forward), and a long corridor runs along the left side. Whenever Air Force One finishes taxying on the tarmac, it always comes to a stop with the left side of the aircraft facing gathered onlookers as a security measure to keep the President's side of the aircraft out of view.
In the office areas, Air Force One features access to photocopying, printing, and word processing, as well as telecommunication systems, 85 telephones, and 19 television sets. There is also secure and non-secure voice, fax, and data communications. Most of the furniture onboard was hand-crafted by master carpenters.
The planes can also be operated as a military command center in the event of an incident such as a nuclear attack. Operational modifications include aerial refueling capability and anti-aircraft missile countermeasures. The electronics onboard include around 238 miles (383 km) of wiring, twice the amount in a regular 747. These are covered with heavy shielding to protect wires and electronics from the electromagnetic pulse generated by a nuclear attack. The planes also have electronic countermeasures (ECMs) which jam enemy radar, and flares to avoid heat-seeking missiles. Much of Air Force One's other capabilities and defenses are classified for security reasons.
History
Prior to World War II, overseas and cross-country presidential travel was rare. Lack of telecommunications and quick transportation made long-distance travel impractical, as it took up much time and isolated the President from events in Washington.
In the 1940s and 1950s, however, air travel became much more convenient. The first president to fly in an airplane while in office was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who traveled on a Boeing 314 "flying boat" aircraft to a 1943 conference in Casablanca on the progress of World War II. The main reason at the time for presidential air travel was the threat of the German Navy's U-boats in the Atlantic. The continuing threat from the submarines established air travel as a usual means of distance 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 To." However, the plane was no longer used for Roosevelt after another C-87A crashed; 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.
After Roosevelt died in spring 1945, Vice President Harry S. Truman became President. He replaced the C-54 with a modified 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 (an eagle head painted on its nose).
The call signs were 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 callsign 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 made for the presidential aircraft.
Eisenhower also introduced two other propeller aircrafts, the Lockheed C-121 Constellations (VC-121E) to Presidential service. These planes were named "Columbine II" and "Columbine III" by Mamie Eisenhower after the official state flower of Colorado, her adopted home state. 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 two Boeing 707 jets into the fleet.
On November 22, 1963, SAM 26000 carried President John F. Kennedy to Dallas, Texas where he was assassinated. It was on the plane (while it was at Love Field) that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office, and the plane carried Kennedy's body back to Washington. Before he died, Kennedy had added a modified long-range 707 to the fleet. He also commissioned industrial designer Raymond Loewy to create a distinctive exterior for the plane. Loewy came up with a powder blue and white design, the same colors used today; he also had the words "United States of America" put on the fuselage's side, the U.S. flag painted on the tail, and the Presidential seal added to both sides of the nose.
SAM 26000 also carried Nixon on his historic trip to mainland China in 1972. The following year, it played a major role in the state funeral of former president Johnson when it brought his body to Washington from Texas for his funeral and back to Texas for his burial, landing at Bergstrom AFB, in Austin, the airfield landing Johnson flew into and out of when President. After Johnson died, a former pilot of SAM 26000 tured over the flag to his wife, Lady Bird.
In 1974, when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency and departed from Andrews AFB on Air Force One, it was arranged that the plane's call sign would switch from Air Force One to SAM (Special Air Mission) designation the moment Gerald Ford took the oath of office.
Ronald Reagan's two terms as President saw no major changes to Air Force One but the fabrication of the current 747s began. Most of the interior was completed in Wichita, Kansas. After many delays the aircraft were delivered in 1990, during the administration of George H.W. Bush.
President George W. Bush added a treadmill to Air Force One. Bush was noted for going to the plane's pressroom to talk to reporters far less than his predecessors. In November 2003, there was a minor controversy when Air Force One's crew lied to British air traffic control, informing them that the 150-ton 747 was an 85,000-pound Gulfstream V corporate jet, while transporting George W. Bush to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with troops stationed there. In 2004, Bush lent a VC-25 to the family of the late President Ronald Reagan to transport his casket to his funeral and back to California for his burial.
Aircraft which have formerly served as "Air Force One" are on display in the Presidential Hangar of the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio, as well as the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. The Boeing 707 that served as Air Force One during the 1980s is at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, but is not yet on display. A Douglas VC-118A Liftmaster used by President Kennedy is on display at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
New aircraft to fulfill the role of Air Force One may be acquired as soon as 2010, when the current 747s are 20 years old.
Pop culture
Air Force One is a prominent symbol of the presidency and its power; after the White House, it is probably the most recognized Presidential institution. Air Force One has often been featured in popular culture and fiction, most notably in the 1997 action movie Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford. In the film, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, Russian terrorists attempt to hijack Air Force One and hold the President and other passengers hostage. The film was noted for its fancifully exaggerated depiction of the plane's capabilities; the real Air Force One does not carry an escape capsule, and automatic weapons firing in the aircraft's corridors would quickly shred its aluminum skin, causing the plane to crash.
Air Force One has been featured in other films (Independence Day, Superman, Escape from New York), books (The President's Plane is Missing), and TV series (The West Wing).
In some of the missions of the Nintendo 64 video game Perfect Dark, the player, a secret agent, must attempt to stop the hijacking of Air Force One.
Other presidential aircraft
No other mode of transportation for government executives is as well known as Air Force One; most nations, even industrialized ones, do not maintain a separate aircraft for heads of state and government, although most have a military "VIP fleet" that provides aircraft when senior government officials must travel (the No. 32 Squadron of the Royal Air Force, for example). A Boeing 707-328C XT-BBF, operated by Naganagani, is used to transport the president of Burkina Faso.
Sources and further reading
Text
- "Air Force One" Boeing Corporation. [1] (http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/af1)
- "Air Force One" United States Air Force. July 2003. [2] (http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=131)
- Albertazzie, Ralph, and Jerald F. Terhorst. Flying White House: The Story of Air Force One. Book Sales: 1984. ASIN 0698109309.
- Dorr, Robert F. Air Force One. Motorbooks International: 2002. ISBN 0760310556.
- Hardesty, Von. Air Force One: The Aircraft that Shaped the Modern Presidency. Northword Press: 2003. ISBN 1559718943.
- Harris, Tom. How Air Force One Works. [3] (http://www.howstuffworks.com/air-force-one.htm)
- Walsh, Kenneth T. Air Force One: A History of the Presidents and Their Planes. Hyperion: 2003. ISBN 1401300049.
Photographs
- Truman Library & Museum.[4] (http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/search.php?access=selectbycategory&keywords=Presidential+aircraft)
- United States Air Force.[5] (http://www.af.mil/photos/index.asp?galleryID=55)
Radio Communication
- Radio communication of the Air Force One monitored by the Frequency Monitor Centre in the Netherlands[6] (http://fmc.dotnet-services.nl/nca.htm)
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