Air Force One: A Detailed History of Every Aircraft Flown As the Flying White House

Air Force One: A Detailed History of Every Aircraft Flown As the Flying White House

Air Force One
By Robert F. Dorr
2002, MBI Publishing Company
Hardcover, 156 pages, $29.95

Former president Theodore Roosevelt wasn't scheduled for a biplane ride in 1910, but as he told a reporter afterward, "You know, I didn't intend to do it, but when I saw the thing there, I could not resist it." That was just seven years after the Wright brothers' historic flight at Kitty Hawk.

The first sitting president to take to the air was the other Roosevelt, FDR, who flew across the Atlantic to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1943. For that historic meeting he rode in a seaplane, a four-engine Boeing 314 called the Dixie Clipper.

Aviation and American history buffs will find a wealth of such detail in Air Force One, a reference book chronicling all of the aircraft assigned to transport the U.S. presidents. Author Robert F. Dorr, a U.S. Air force veteran and retired diplomat, has been writing about military aircraft for decades and brings his years of expertise to bear in this handsome coffee table book. With over 150 color and black-and-white photographs, the authoritative volume allows you to climb aboard and catch a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of the flying White House.

Dorr was aboard SAM 27000, a Boeing 707-353B, on its final flight from Andrews AFB, Maryland to San Bernardino, California on September 8, 2001. This famous Air Force One had flown every American president since 1972. It carried Richard Nixon to China, Jimmy Carter to Germany (to meet the Iran hostages after their release) and George W. Bush to Texas. At San Bernardino the historic aircraft was disassembled and trucked in pieces to Simi Valley, California where it is now on permanent exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Today, two identical Boeing 747s, a special military version of the familiar passenger plane, wear the imposing presidential livery of Air Force One. The first of the twins was delivered (15 months late) to the 89th Airlift Wing in August 1990, the second followed in December. The first president to fly in it was George H.W. Bush on a trip to Topeka, KS in September, 1990.

Here's a photo caption under a classic shot of the huge aircraft lifting off:

One Air Force officer described Air Force One as "magnificent... like a cruise ship." The high angle of attack is made possible by the enormous push of the four General Electric F103-GE-180 turbofan engines, each rated at 56,750 pounds thrust. Although the aircraft is not aerodynamically capable of it, the engines are powerful enough to stand the 747 on its tail and make it climb straight up.

For extensive coverage of the top secret aircraft currently used by President Obama and exactly what happened in the air on September 11, 2001, Air Force One has the inside information. The book has recently been updated and is available at most bookstores or directly from the publisher: http://www.motorbooks.com