INTRO
PHOTO: AP 6106040105
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ALT: John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy waving goodbye from door of presidential plane (AP Images)
It is unquestionably the most exclusive ride in the world: the gleaming, blue-and-white jumbo jet that answers to the call signal Air Force One. Today U.S. presidents roam the world in a pair of Boeing 747-200B wide-bodied aircraft (VC-25s in military parlance) built during President Ronald Reagan’s second term and first ridden by President George H.W. Bush on September 6, 1990.
Here, President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy wave goodbye from the door of the presidential plane following a summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in June 1961.
PHOTO 1: AP 611017041
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ALT: U.S. Air Force C-54 aircraft known as Sacred Cow (AP Images)
The first military plane reserved for presidential travel was a four-engine Douglas VC-54 that the press in 1944 dubbed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Sacred Cow.
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ALT: President Harry Truman’s DC-6 The Independence (AP Images)
President Harry Truman traveled in a DC-6 that was named The Independence after his Missouri hometown.
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ALT: Columbine III aircraft in flight (AP Images)
President Dwight Eisenhower flew aboard two Lockheed Constellations called Columbine II and III before the first jet, a Boeing 707 nicknamed Queenie, joined the presidential fleet in 1959. It was during Eisenhower’s presidency that the president’s plane first was designated Air Force One.
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ALT: President John F. Kennedy shaking hands (AP Images)
The second jet in the presidential fleet, a Boeing 707 with the number 26000 on its tail, was rolled out in 1962 for President John F. Kennedy. 26000 was the first plane with the classic livery on its fuselage, created by Raymond Loewy at the behest of Jacqueline Kennedy.
In this photo, President Kennedy arrives at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on returning from European summit talks in June 1961.
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ALT: President Richard Nixon and Patricia Nixon waving before boarding Air Force One (AP Images)
The Boeing 707 26000 later carried President Lyndon Baines Johnson to visit troops in Vietnam and President Richard Nixon to China. It remained the president’s primary plane until 1972 and stayed in the executive fleet ferrying vice presidents and secretaries of state until 1998.
Here, President Nixon and Pat Nixon depart from Shanghai Airport in February 1972.
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ALT: President Ronald Reagan aboard Air Force One (AP Images)
After 26000 moved on (eventually it was retired after 5 million miles to the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio), another 707, designated 27000, was the workhorse presidential aircraft from 1972 until 1990. Decommissioned in 2001, it now is on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
President Reagan is shown aboard Air Force One i