Kennedy's Air Force One

[AFML]

The assembly/relocation crew were just leaving the Presidential Hanger when we arrived. Kennedy's Air Force One WAS in the Restoration Hanger the day before. They moved it early in the morning. We, (er...the Women) were the first to go through it that day. The new Imron paint job looks GREAT!



Here it is still in the Restoration Hanger on friday.






FLARE POD



SUB FIN




These pics were taken the next day, Saturday, in the Presidential Hanger.













Gotta remember.....All the fuzzy interior pics were taken through PLEXIGLASS!
I tried.....

Got pics of the other Presidential birds too if interested.
"Sacred Cow", Super Connie, Independence.........

[tom d. friedman]

great stuff!! the heck with the fuzzy pics, their fine!! the trivia is what counts!!

[Rauhbatz]

My brother-in-law spent a lot of time flying that bird when he was with the 89th. I was fortunate enough to take a tour of N26000 when it was still in active service.

He used to complain about the short legs the VC-137s had when it came to overseas trips; always had to stop in Shannon for fuel.

Got to hear lots of interesting stories about that a/c....he drops by from time to time to visit his old bird...

[Pat Carry]

Looking good!

[JBoyle]

Note the non-standard blue of the stars & bars.
Designed to match the rest of the scheme.

BTW: the paint scheme is attributed to Mrs. Kennedy and famous industrial designer Raymond Loewy.

Lowey (and his firm) have a lot of design credits....everything from streamlining a steam locomotive, to "tweaking" the Coke bottle, a fountain Coke dispenser, several corporate logos, and some Studebakers....including the Avanti luxury sporty coupe (which I'm the proud owner of one).

[APG85]

What's the story with the "sub-fin"? Was that always on the plane or something they re-installed at the museum?

[APG85]

I checked the Museum web site. When the plane landed at the Museum, it didn't have the "Sub-fin" installed. I don't think it has had it in years...maybe since the late 1960's. Where did the Museum get one to re-install? Is the Museum returning the aircraft to it's 1963 appearance? Just curious as to what the plan is...

[Steve Nelson]

I mentioned this in another thread, but here it is again with a bit more detail. Back in 1995 I took the NMUSAF "behind the scenes" tour, which included a tour of the museum storage building. On one shelf were a couple of airliner seats covered with plastic. When I asked about them, the tour guide said they were the seats in which Jackie and LBJ sat on the flight back from Dallas. She said that when the museum got SAM 26000 (which was still in service at the time) they planned to return the interior to its 1963 configuration. I really rather hope they don't..the aircraft's history during subsequent presidential administrations is just as important as the "Camelot" era. Once the new Presidential Gallery is built, the seats can go in an outside historical display near the plane, along with other artifacts and memorabilia.

As an aside, I was surprised when I visited Pima and found they have the last prop-driven Presidential aircraft, a VC-118 (DC-6) used by both Kennedy and LBJ on shorter hops, where it was more fuel-efficient than the VC-137, and could get into smaller airports. The tour guide told us that after its VIP service, the plane was stripped of it's executive interior and returned to regular transport duties. He said it was about to be scrapped at AMARC, but was spared when someone noticed the tail number. I believe the guide said the museum was able to locate all the original Presidential fittings and reinstall them, including a specially made chair for JFK's bad back. There were also a set of basic flight instruments in the aft office. The guide told us they were installed for LBJ..he was apparently a "nervous flyer" and the flight crew got tired of him constantly calling the cockpit asking about about speed and heading and such. Pima's website says the plane is on loan from the NMUSAF. I'm surprised it's not at Wright-Pat with the rest of the Presidential collection, but I suppose they probably just don't have the room.

SN