Air Force One

This article is about the Presidential aircraft. For the 1997 action movie starring Harrison Ford, see Air Force One (movie).

Air Force One is the airline call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. Since 1990, Air Force One has been two VC-25A aircraft, tail numbers 28000 and 29000. These planes, highly customized versions of the civilian Boeing 747-200B, are maintained by the U.S. Air Force almost solely for presidential air transport. 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 planes known as Air Force One differ from standard Boeing 747 in size, features, and security precautions.

Air Force One's interior has been reconfigured for presidential duties, and includes office areas, communications systems, and telephones and television sets. There are also medical facilities, including a medical operating table and pharmacy. 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, lavatory and shower.

There is also space for the president's family, staff and news media. The plane 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.

Air Force One flights are handled as military operations with all flights managed by the Presidential Airlift Group of the Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews AFB in Maryland. The President often flies a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, callsign Marine One, between the Andrews AFB and the White House. Similarly, Army aircraft carrying the President bear the callsign Army One, and Navy aircraft are called Navy One. A civilian plane carrying the President gets the callsign Executive One, and a plane carrying a member of the first family will be called Executive One Foxtrot.

The call signs were established for security purposes during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, after a commercial flight with the same callsign as a flight the President was on coincidentally entered the same airspace.

Aircraft are only designated Air Force One while the President is onboard. 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 its SAM designation the moment Gerald Ford took the oath of office.

From its inception Air Force One has become a symbol of Presidential power and prestige, carrying the president on several diplomatic missions. It has also played a role in history. On November 22, 1963, SAM 26000 carried President John F. Kennedy to Dallas, Texas where he was assassinated. It was on the plane that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office, and the plane carried Kennedy's remains back to Washington. SAM 26000 also carried president 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. As he was being laid to rest, turning over the flag to Mrs. Johnson was a former pilot of SAM 26000. In 2004, President George W. 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. In November, 2003, there was a minor controversy when Air Force One's crew lied to British Air Traffic Control operators, informing them that the hundred-fifty ton 747 was an 85,000 pound Gulfstream V corporate jet, while transporting President Bush to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with troops stationed there.