FEBRUARY 2016 | 39 BY MICHAEL LOMBARDI he cable to Boeing CEO William Allen came from the chief pilot for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. “The President is enjoying his 707 tour of Europe,” it read. “My heartiest congratulations on a wonderful airplane.” That 1959 message from U.S. Air Force Col. William Draper was the icing on the cake for Allen and The Boeing Company, coming during a very successful first year of service for the company’s new 707, which also had been chosen for the prestigious role of serving the U.S. president. Officially, airplanes selected for presidential service carry the call sign SAM, for Special Air Mission. But in 1953, during Eisenhower’s presidency, another call sign became famous as a result of a near collision over New York City. The president’s airplane and an Eastern Airlines flight were both flying under the same flight number, 8610. After that near disaster, any time the president was aboard an Air Force airplane it would fly with the call sign Air Force One. Today, Boeing’s 747, in the regal presidential livery of blue and gold, is a very visible and proud symbol of the United States and continues the tradition of Boeing jets serving in the prestigious role of Air Force One. That tradition will continue. In January 2015, the Air Force announced that the latest version of Boeing’s venerable jumbo jet, the 747-8 Intercontinental, eventually will replace the current presidential fleet. Boeing and Douglas airplanes have a long association with America’s presidents. Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to fly while in office. In 1943, he flew aboard a Boeing 314 Clipper to the Casablanca conference and during the flight he celebrated HISTORICAL PERSPECT I V E his 61st birthday in style—in the 314’s spacious dining area. Roosevelt was also the first to have a dedicated presidential airplane, a Douglas C-54 that was nicknamed Sacred Cow. President Harry Truman used a Douglas VC-118 (DC-6) called Independence, after his hometown in Missouri. Eisenhower brought the presidential fleet into the jet age with the Boeing 707-120. In 1961, the first jet built for the purpose of carrying the president was ordered from Boeing. Based on the intercontinental 707-320B, the aircraft was designated VC-137C, given the serial number 62-6000 and call sign SAM 26000. Famed designer Ray Loewy designed the livery and interior, with contributions from President Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline. The Caslon font used for the legend “United States of America” was chosen by Kennedy for its similarity to the heading of the Declaration of Independence. SAM 26000 carried President Kennedy to Berlin in June 1963, during the Cold War days with the Soviet Union, where he made a famous speech best remembered for his words, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Tragically, that same year the plane returned the body of Kennedy to Washington, D.C., after he was assassinated in Dallas. SAM 26000 also took President Richard Nixon on his groundbreaking visit to the People’s Republic of China in February 1972. Today, the plane is preserved at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Ten years after 26000 was delivered, a second VC-137C was ordered. That airplane rolled out of the Renton, Wash., plant on July 10, 1972. It received the tail number 27000 and call sign SAM 27000. SAM 27000’s first flight as Air Force One occurred on Feb. 9, 1973, when President Nixon traveled from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to San Clemente, Calif. The plane went on to serve Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, but it was President Ronald Reagan who used it the most. It carried Reagan to Berlin in 1987, where, in a historic speech near the Brandenburg Gate, he urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall that separated East and West Germany. Today, SAM 27000 is preserved at the Reagan Library’s Museum of Presidential Transportation in Simi Valley, Calif. In 1990, Boeing delivered two VC-25As (747-200B), to take over duties as Air Force One. Once again, the design was influenced by a first lady, this time Nancy Reagan, who chose American Southwest motifs and colors for the interior. SAM 28000 first flew as Air Force One on Sept. 6, 1990, when it transported President George Bush to Kansas, then Florida and back to Washington, D.C. A second VC-25A, tail number 29000, had the honor of carrying three presidents—Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Bush—to Israel for the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Both 747s later performed another service—flying the remains of Reagan and Ford to Washington, D.C., for their state funerals. • MICHAEL.J.LOMBARDI@BOEING.COM To view a photo essay of Boeing’s 50-plus years of presidential service throughout the jet age, click here. Hail to the chief! Carrying the U.S. president, Boeing airplanes have a rich legacy as Air Force One T
Frontiers February 2016 Issue
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