Presidential airplanes through the decades

Presidential airplanes through the decades
By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Updated 04:23 p.m., Monday, February 20, 2012

See website below for a gallery of images including:

This Boeing VC-137C aircraft, SAM 26000, was the first jet made specifically for presidential use, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. It entered service directly from the Boeing assembly line on Oct. 10, 1962. It flew Kennedy to Berlin in 1963 for his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” declaration. Later that year, it brought the president to Dallas for his ill-fated visit. Here, Kennedy’s casket is loaded onto the jet after his assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.
Photo: U.S. Air Force / SL

President George W. Bush walks down the steps of Air Force One as he arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland, on September 11, 2001.
Photo: DOUG MILLS, AFP/Getty Images / AFP

The two Boeing 747-200s that serve as Air Force One, carrying the president of the United States around the world, have become such icons that it can come as a surprise that they’ve only been in service since 1990.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to fly while in office, traveling to the Casablanca Conference in 1943 aboard a commercial Boeing 314 Clipper Ship, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. Soon after, the Army Air Forces ordered its own aircraft to do the job. Click through the special Presidents Day gallery to see the succession of aircraft that have resulted.

Meanwhile, those two 747s are getting long in the tooth. The Air Force is considering ordering Boeing 747-8 airplanes or 787 Dreamliners as replacements.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/boeing/article/Presidential-airplanes-through-the-decades-3344530.php#ixzz1n5vkIfJC