He presumes that the next version would have a similar system. “What we do know is that Air Force One has a skin on it designed to ward off electromagnetic pulses if there was a nuclear war,” says Walsh. The current plane also has understandably secretive defense capabilities. Walsh also says that since 9/11 they made it easier for the president to address the country from the airplane. #aviation /7BmnCABLuG- Scott Bateman MBE January 13, 2021 I managed recently to spend some time with these professionals in their natural habitat. Currently with 3 operators they manage all of the communications in and out of the flying #WhiteHouse. One of the more sensitive areas of #airforceone is the communications area. “President Bush was upset a few times because his phone calls were getting cut off and dropped,” Walsh says. News and World Report, and has traveled on Air Force One some 300 times. Bush had trouble with the on-board communications system, according to Walsh, who is a contributing White House and political analyst for U.S. Switching to newer planes provides the obvious benefits that come with a modern aircraft-more efficient engines and better reliability-and is also a chance to install new defense and communications equipment.įor example, during September 11, 2001, President George W. “The basic reason for updating them is that the existing fleet of planes are just getting old,” Harrison, of CSIS, says. He was the first president to fly in the same Boeing 747-200s that are still cruising today, known as VC-25A. The Air Force One of today dates back to the George H.W. Boeing Surviving an electromagnetic pulse Air Force One was still a Boeing 707 from 1962 to 1990, but gained a more presidential look. Four-engine 707 jets served as Air Force Ones from 1959 to 1990. Kennedy made it into “a presidential plane,” Walsh says. That code name, of course, also became the public term. “They wanted a code name for air traffic control that would never be confused with another plane, and Air Force One seemed to have a certain majesty to it,” Walsh says. That’s also when the term “Air Force One” was born. It wasn’t until the Kennedy administration that the 707 received a blue and white paint job similar to what the current craft has. Later, President Eisenhower had a four-engine jet, a Boeing 707, which had, Walsh says, a “military style.” From 1959 to 1962, the presidential plane was a Boeing 707 without the blue and white paint job. He notes that it even had “tail feathers.” The Independence. “It was painted to look like an eagle,” Walsh says. Kenneth Walsh, author of Air Force One: A History of Presidents and Their Planes, points out that President Truman wanted a distinctive design for his two-prop aircraft, the Independence. Presidents haven’t always flown in a Boeing 747. Here’s what we know about the next version of Air Force One, which the Air Force calls the VC-25B, and the history of presidential aircraft leading up to the present day. “It represents the presidency and the U.S. “It doesn’t represent an individual president,” says Todd Harrison, the director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Like the White House, Air Force One is a symbol that is supposed to transcend any presidential administration. The current planes are Boeing 747s, and the next ones will be too, although they will be a new model that is longer and wider (measured by its wingspan) than its predecessor. Sometime in 2024, if all goes according to plan, the Biden administration should receive a sweet new ride: the future version of Air Force One. This article was first published in February, 2019. An Air Force VC-25A doing a touch-and-go practice maneuver in 2013 in New Jersey.
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