Air Force One

Official plane of the President of the United States. When presidents first became airborne, the U.S. Army Air Corps, later known as the Air Force, became air chauffeur to the commander in chief. It has been in charge of selecting and piloting presidential planes ever since. The first official plane used by a president was an Army Air Corps Douglas C-54 Skymaster, dubbed the Sacred Cow by the press. Shortly before his death in 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945) used the plane once. Harry S. Truman (1945–1953), who enjoyed flying, used the Sacred Cow often for presidential trips. In the summer of 1947, the official presidential plane was upgraded to a state-of-the-art Douglas Aircraft DC-6. Named the Independence after Truman's hometown in Missouri, the plane was equipped with weather radar, long-range capability, and a teletype system that allowed the president to stay in touch with Washington even when he was three thousand miles away. The Independence served him throughout his administration.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) enjoyed flying even more than Truman. Although he did not pilot the planes himself, he had a pilot's license. President Eisenhower's first official plane was a Lockheed Constellation 749. Named Columbine II, after the military craft he used during World War II (1939–1945) and the official flower of his wife's home state of Colorado, the model was a personal favorite. Because of rapidly advancing aviation technology, the plane was replaced in 1954 by Columbine III a Lockheed 1049C Super-Constellation, which remained the official plane for the remainder of Eisenhower's administration. On a whirlwind, eighteen-day tour of eleven countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia in 1959, Eisenhower chose not to use the propeller-driven Columbine III and became the first president to travel by jet.

The distinction of being the first president to travel regularly by jet, however, belonged to John F. Kennedy (1961–1963). In 1962, a Boeing 707 was delivered to Kennedy; it became officially known as 26000 and designated Air Force One, as is any plane in which the president might be flying. Previous planes had been military in appearance, but designer Raymond Loewy, along with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, created a new exterior that would become widely recognized around the world. Among the changes, “United States Air Force” was replaced with “United States of America” on the body of the craft. Mrs. Kennedy added amenities for which the plane became famous.

President Kennedy was not able to enjoy Air Force One for very long, however. On the day of his assassination, November 22, 1963, Kennedy's body was flown from Dallas to Washington in the plane he had used for just over thirteen months. Nine years later, the plane Kennedy had first used became the backup to a newer version of the Boeing 707. These two planes remained the president's planes for more than twenty-five years. By the 1980s, however, the 707s were obsolete: Their range, space, and amenities were limited; factory parts were hard to obtain; and their engines were too loud to meet many local airport noise rules.

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