VC-137C SAM 26000
Encyclopedia
SAM 26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force
aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States
. It used the callsign Air Force One
when the President was on board, SAM 26000 otherwise.
A VC-137C serial number 62-6000
, SAM 26000 was a customized Boeing 707
. It entered service in 1962 during the administration of John F. Kennedy
and was replaced in Presidential service in 1972 but kept as a backup. The aircraft was finally retired in 1998 and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
.
administration. It was built at Boeing's Renton, Washington plant at a cost of $8 million. Raymond Loewy
, working with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, designed the blue and white color scheme featuring the presidential seal that is still used today. The plane served as the primary means of transportation for three presidents: Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
, and Richard Nixon
during his first term. In 1972, during the Nixon administration, the plane was replaced by another 707, SAM 27000
, although SAM 26000 was kept as a back-up plane until 1998.
John F. Kennedy
used SAM 26000 for less than one year, occassionally using other presidential aircraft. SAM 26000 took Kennedy to Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner
") in 1963; the month before that, it set a new Washington-Moscow time record.
It was designer Raymond Loewy
who, at the invitation of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, gave SAM 26000 the now-familiar Air Force One livery
of blue, silver, and white.
On November 22, 1963, after landing the President and First Lady at Dallas' Love Field, SAM 26000 was the backdrop to live broadcasts of the Kennedys greeting well-wishers. After Kennedy was assassinated later that day, making Vice-President Lyndon Johnson
the new president (see Assassination of John F. Kennedy
), SAM 26000 carried Johnson, Mrs. Kennedy, and Kennedy's body back to Washington. To accommodate the casket four seats and a partition were removed from the passenger compartment; Johnson took the Oath of Office (see photo) even as SAM 26000's engines were being powered up for takeoff.
Days later, as Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery
, 50 fighter jets flew overhead, followed by SAM 26000.
Johnson was SAM 26000's most frequent flyer, logging some 523,000 miles during his five years as president; he once called it "my own little plane". New seats were installed, now facing rearward toward the presidential cabin, in which was installed a spacious leather chair (dubbed "the throne") and a crescent-shaped table which the president could raise and lower by meabs of a switch. Aides and guests sat on couches around "the throne."
Johnson flew twice to Vietnam and took tours of Asia in 1968 and 1969. The following year, Johnson went on a largely unplanned aerial odyssey, making stops in California, Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, South Vietnam, Pakistan, and Italy.
Upon the inauguration of Richard Nixon
in 1969, SAM 26000 underwent repairs and upgrades. Nixon and his staff were offered a key role in the redesigning of the plane, a position they took up, and indeed, the finished plane reflected the new president's persona. The interior of the plane was stripped from the nose to the tail; all minor problems were taken care of; upgrades were made on the flight management system; communications gear was slightly modified. Richard Nixon had the interior of the plane redesigned to suit his fancy. Nixon did away with the open floor plan of the Johnson era and replaced it with a three-room suite for himself and his family, serving as a combination of lounge, office, and bedrooms. Accommodations for guests, aides, security and media personnel were located aft of the three rooms.
Although SAM 27000 took over as the primary presidential aircraft in 1972, Nixon's family preferred SAM 26000 because its interior configuration allowed greater privacy for the First Family. Nixon also had the name "The Spirit of '76" applied to the nose of both VC-137Cs. The Nixons flew on SAM 26000 to China
in 1972, becoming the first American President and First Lady to visit that nation. (The original Peter Sellars
production of John Adams
' opera Nixon in China
opens with a life-sized model of the plane "landing" on stage, the name "Spirit of '76" clearly visible on the side.) SAM 26000 was also used by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger
during his secret meetings with the French to negotiate the Vietnam peace process. In December 1972, SAM 27000 took over as the primary presidential plane.
for the state funeral the following day. After the funeral, which Nixon himself presided over, the aircraft returned his body to Texas for burial, landing at Bergstrom Air Force Base
in Austin, the airfield Johnson flew into and out of when president. As the former president was interred at his ranch, retired Brigadier General James Cross, pilot of SAM 26000 during part of the Johnson presidency, presented the flag to Lady Bird Johnson
at her request. He also escorted her, during the state funeral, Major General James Adamson, then commanding general of the Military District of Washington (MDW), again, at her request, saying that she did not know General Adamson. Most of this resulted from Mrs. Johnson agreeing to the public honors in Washington, though her husband died in Texas, because she felt so many others from around the world wanted to join in—40,000 people paid their respects when the former president lay in state, even though the mood during the state funeral was one of intense recrimination because the wounds of the Vietnam War
were still raw. Because of SAM 26000, the final services honoring LBJ on January 25 were completed in one day, despite taking place in different parts of the country.
On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
was assassinated. Because of security concerns, then-President Ronald Reagan
did not attend the funeral. Instead, he sent Secretary of State Alexander Haig
and the living former presidents—Nixon, Ford
, and Carter
—to the funeral, as well as former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. All of them flew aboard SAM 26000 when traveling to the funeral.
The last time SAM 26000 carried a serving president was in January 1998 when President Bill Clinton's Air Force One
literally got stuck in the mud in Champaign, Illinois at University of Illinois Willard Airport
. SAM 26000 was sitting at Grissom Air Reserve Base
in Peru, Indiana, to serve as the backup Air Force One. SAM 26000 was quickly dispatched to Champaign to pick up President Clinton, who then flew to La Crosse, Wisconsin for an event and then flew the final presidential service flight from La Crosse to Washington D.C., where SAM 26000 was then officially retired from the president's fleet.
near Dayton, Ohio
. Its final flight was staged over the Museum grounds for the benefit of the media and Museum visitors. The aircraft circled the Museum several times at low altitude before finally landing on the original Wright Field
airstrip alongside the Museum. The plane taxied to the Museum's restoration hangars and the crew disembarked, while members of the press explored the aircraft. After several months of work by the Museum's restoration staff, the aircraft was placed on permanent display in the Museum's Presidential Hangar. The public can walk through the aircraft; while the original intent (according to museum personnel) was to restore the aircraft to how it looked when Kennedy was President, it was later determined to leave the aircraft interior as it looked when it was delivered to the U.S. Air Force Museum in May, 1998. In December 2009, SAM 26000 was taken off display and moved to the museum's restoration area, where it would be repainted into its Presidential paint scheme. SAM 26000 returned recently to the Presidential Planes hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum.
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. It used the callsign Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign of any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. In common parlance the term refers to those Air Force aircraft whose primary mission is to transport the president; however, any U.S. Air Force aircraft...
when the President was on board, SAM 26000 otherwise.
A VC-137C serial number 62-6000
United States military aircraft serials
In the United States, all military aircraft display a serial number to identify individual aircraft. Because these numbers are located on the aircraft tail, they are sometimes referred to unofficially as "tail numbers"...
, SAM 26000 was a customized Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
. It entered service in 1962 during the administration of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and was replaced in Presidential service in 1972 but kept as a backup. The aircraft was finally retired in 1998 and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
National Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...
.
Operational history
SAM 26000 entered service in 1962 during the John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administration. It was built at Boeing's Renton, Washington plant at a cost of $8 million. Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy was an industrial designer, and the first to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine, on October 31, 1949. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States...
, working with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, designed the blue and white color scheme featuring the presidential seal that is still used today. The plane served as the primary means of transportation for three presidents: Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
, and Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
during his first term. In 1972, during the Nixon administration, the plane was replaced by another 707, SAM 27000
VC-137C SAM 27000
SAM 27000 was the second of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft that were specifically configured and maintained for the use of the President of the United States. It used the call sign Air Force One when the President was on board, and at other times it used the call sign SAM 27000...
, although SAM 26000 was kept as a back-up plane until 1998.
Kennedy and Johnson
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
used SAM 26000 for less than one year, occassionally using other presidential aircraft. SAM 26000 took Kennedy to Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner
Ich bin ein Berliner
"Ich bin ein Berliner" is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement...
") in 1963; the month before that, it set a new Washington-Moscow time record.
It was designer Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy
Raymond Loewy was an industrial designer, and the first to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine, on October 31, 1949. Born in France, he spent most of his professional career in the United States...
who, at the invitation of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, gave SAM 26000 the now-familiar Air Force One livery
Livery
A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...
of blue, silver, and white.
On November 22, 1963, after landing the President and First Lady at Dallas' Love Field, SAM 26000 was the backdrop to live broadcasts of the Kennedys greeting well-wishers. After Kennedy was assassinated later that day, making Vice-President Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
the new president (see Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
), SAM 26000 carried Johnson, Mrs. Kennedy, and Kennedy's body back to Washington. To accommodate the casket four seats and a partition were removed from the passenger compartment; Johnson took the Oath of Office (see photo) even as SAM 26000's engines were being powered up for takeoff.
Days later, as Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
, 50 fighter jets flew overhead, followed by SAM 26000.
Johnson was SAM 26000's most frequent flyer, logging some 523,000 miles during his five years as president; he once called it "my own little plane". New seats were installed, now facing rearward toward the presidential cabin, in which was installed a spacious leather chair (dubbed "the throne") and a crescent-shaped table which the president could raise and lower by meabs of a switch. Aides and guests sat on couches around "the throne."
Johnson flew twice to Vietnam and took tours of Asia in 1968 and 1969. The following year, Johnson went on a largely unplanned aerial odyssey, making stops in California, Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, South Vietnam, Pakistan, and Italy.
Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
in 1969, SAM 26000 underwent repairs and upgrades. Nixon and his staff were offered a key role in the redesigning of the plane, a position they took up, and indeed, the finished plane reflected the new president's persona. The interior of the plane was stripped from the nose to the tail; all minor problems were taken care of; upgrades were made on the flight management system; communications gear was slightly modified. Richard Nixon had the interior of the plane redesigned to suit his fancy. Nixon did away with the open floor plan of the Johnson era and replaced it with a three-room suite for himself and his family, serving as a combination of lounge, office, and bedrooms. Accommodations for guests, aides, security and media personnel were located aft of the three rooms.
Although SAM 27000 took over as the primary presidential aircraft in 1972, Nixon's family preferred SAM 26000 because its interior configuration allowed greater privacy for the First Family. Nixon also had the name "The Spirit of '76" applied to the nose of both VC-137Cs. The Nixons flew on SAM 26000 to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1972, becoming the first American President and First Lady to visit that nation. (The original Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
production of John Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
' opera Nixon in China
Nixon in China (opera)
Nixon in China is an opera in three acts by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams' first opera, it was inspired by the 1972 visit to China by US President Richard Nixon. The work premiered at the Houston Grand Opera on October 22, 1987, in a production by Peter Sellars with...
opens with a life-sized model of the plane "landing" on stage, the name "Spirit of '76" clearly visible on the side.) SAM 26000 was also used by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger
Henry Kissinger
Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
during his secret meetings with the French to negotiate the Vietnam peace process. In December 1972, SAM 27000 took over as the primary presidential plane.
Missions after replacement
On January 22, 1973, Lyndon B. Johnson died. Two days later, SAM 26000 brought the former president's body from Texas to Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
for the state funeral the following day. After the funeral, which Nixon himself presided over, the aircraft returned his body to Texas for burial, landing at Bergstrom Air Force Base
Bergstrom Air Force Base
Bergstrom Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located seven miles southeast of downtown Austin, Texas. It was activated during World War II as a troop carrier training airfield, and was a front-line Strategic Air Command base during the Cold War...
in Austin, the airfield Johnson flew into and out of when president. As the former president was interred at his ranch, retired Brigadier General James Cross, pilot of SAM 26000 during part of the Johnson presidency, presented the flag to Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
at her request. He also escorted her, during the state funeral, Major General James Adamson, then commanding general of the Military District of Washington (MDW), again, at her request, saying that she did not know General Adamson. Most of this resulted from Mrs. Johnson agreeing to the public honors in Washington, though her husband died in Texas, because she felt so many others from around the world wanted to join in—40,000 people paid their respects when the former president lay in state, even though the mood during the state funeral was one of intense recrimination because the wounds of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
were still raw. Because of SAM 26000, the final services honoring LBJ on January 25 were completed in one day, despite taking place in different parts of the country.
On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
was assassinated. Because of security concerns, then-President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
did not attend the funeral. Instead, he sent Secretary of State Alexander Haig
Alexander Haig
Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. was a United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford...
and the living former presidents—Nixon, Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
, and Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
—to the funeral, as well as former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. All of them flew aboard SAM 26000 when traveling to the funeral.
The last time SAM 26000 carried a serving president was in January 1998 when President Bill Clinton's Air Force One
Air Force One
Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign of any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. In common parlance the term refers to those Air Force aircraft whose primary mission is to transport the president; however, any U.S. Air Force aircraft...
literally got stuck in the mud in Champaign, Illinois at University of Illinois Willard Airport
University of Illinois Willard Airport
University of Illinois Willard Airport is an airport owned and operated by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign located south of Savoy in Tolono Township, Champaign County, Illinois. It serves the greater Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area in East Central Illinois...
. SAM 26000 was sitting at Grissom Air Reserve Base
Grissom Air Reserve Base
Grissom Air Reserve Base is a United States Air Force base, located approximately north of Kokomo, Indiana. The facility is a joint use civil airport/military base with the Grissom Aeroplex which provides general aviation and charter service....
in Peru, Indiana, to serve as the backup Air Force One. SAM 26000 was quickly dispatched to Champaign to pick up President Clinton, who then flew to La Crosse, Wisconsin for an event and then flew the final presidential service flight from La Crosse to Washington D.C., where SAM 26000 was then officially retired from the president's fleet.
Current status
In May 1998 SAM 26000 was flown to the National Museum of the United States Air ForceNational Museum of the United States Air Force
The National Museum of the United States Air Force is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the world's largest and oldest military aviation museum with more than 360 aircraft and missiles on display...
near Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
. Its final flight was staged over the Museum grounds for the benefit of the media and Museum visitors. The aircraft circled the Museum several times at low altitude before finally landing on the original Wright Field
Wright Field
Wright Field was an airfield of the United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces near Riverside, Ohio. From 1927 to 1947 it was the research and development center for the Air Corps, and during World War II a flight test center....
airstrip alongside the Museum. The plane taxied to the Museum's restoration hangars and the crew disembarked, while members of the press explored the aircraft. After several months of work by the Museum's restoration staff, the aircraft was placed on permanent display in the Museum's Presidential Hangar. The public can walk through the aircraft; while the original intent (according to museum personnel) was to restore the aircraft to how it looked when Kennedy was President, it was later determined to leave the aircraft interior as it looked when it was delivered to the U.S. Air Force Museum in May, 1998. In December 2009, SAM 26000 was taken off display and moved to the museum's restoration area, where it would be repainted into its Presidential paint scheme. SAM 26000 returned recently to the Presidential Planes hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum.