Lex Anteinternet: The Aerodrome: Air Force One.: The Aerodrome: Air Force One. : Air Force One. Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it started before the Qatari proposa...
So the US has in fact accepted the Qatari 747.
Simply embarrassing.
Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it started before the Qatari proposal to give the United States, or Donald Trump (it isn't clear which) a luxury outfitted Boeing 747.
Technically "Air Force One" is a call sign, and merely denotes an airplane the Chief Executive is a passenger in. If a President rode in an Air Force Cessna, that would be Air Force One. But everyone knows that it refers to one of two Boeing VC-25s, militarized 747s, that are designated for the Presidents use.
Interestingly, the first aircraft designated for Presidential use was a Navy airplane, an amphibious Douglas Dolphin RD-2 that was luxury outfitted for use by President Roosevelt. It was used from 1933 to 1939, and obviously not for transglobal flight. The President didn't really do extensive travel until World War Two.
.jpg)
In spite of concerns over commercial aviation being used to carry the President during the war, it was in fact used and it wasn 't until 1945 that a new designated Presidential aircraft was acquired, that being a Secret Service reconfigured a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (VC-54C) which was named the Sacred Cow. It contained a sleeping area, radiotelephone, and retractable battery-powered elevator to lift Roosevelt in his wheelchair. It's only use by Roosevelt was to fly the then dying President to Yalta. Truman used it thereafter, but it was replaced by military DC-6 (VC-118) thereafter.
President Eisenhower, who of course knew planes well, to Lockheed C-121 Constellations, Columbine II and Columbine III. The Constellation was a very popular airplane at the time, and Douglas MacArthur also had one, that one spending many years after its service at the Natrona County International Airport on an abandoned runway.
Columbine II was the first Presidential aircraft to receive the designation Air Force One.
At the end of Eisenhower's Presidency Boeing 707s came in, in part because the Soviets were using a jet to transport their Premier. 707s remained through the Nixon era, giving good service in this role.
747s, as VC-25s, entered specialized manufacture for use as Air Force One during Reagan's administration, although the first one would enter service after that. They've been used ever since.
These aren't normal 747s. They are packed with communications and electronic warfare equipment in order to have combat survivability.
Replacing the current two aircraft that are used as Air Force One is a topic that the Air Force started looking at quite a few years ago. The 747 variant which the VC-25 isn't made anymore. Production of 747s stopped in 2023 in favor of more modern aircraft. Still, the airframe remains useful in this role, and after the Air Force started to look into options, updating a 747-8 appeared to be the best option. Only Boeing was interested in the project anyway, and it will take a massive financial loss to do it.
The aircraft that are being retrofitted for this role was built, originally, as a commercial airliner. The projected is a massive one, and the delivery date will be in 2027.
Enter Qatar.
Qatar has offered to give the US (I guess) a luxury Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One until the other 747-8s are complete. But here's the thing. Boeing has been working on the complicated task fo converting the two existing 747-8s for this use for several years. After all, it's basically a combat aircraft. All accepting the plane would do is give Boeing a third one to convert, which wouldn't be ready for years.
Trump is being childish about this, as he is about a lot of things. He doesn't seem to grasp the nature of the aircraft, and likely a lot of other people don't as well. In his case, this is inexcusable. It's a combat airplane.
Frankly, it's a Cold War combat airplane.
Which gets to this.
The 747 was a big massive airliner in an era in which it was the queen of the sky. That era is over and airlines have moved on to more modern aircraft. The world in which Ronald Reagan ordered 747s is gone as well. It's still useful to have an aircraft that can be used in a global thermonuclear war, which is what it is, but that's not going to happen and it makes no sense to use it to go on weekend golfing trips to Florida.
But that's what Trump tends to use it for.
That raises an entire series of other questions, many of which have little to do with aircraft, but some of which do. It's notable that other Presidents have used lighter aircraft for more mundane trips. In November 1999, President Bill Clinton flew from Ankara, Turkey, to Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station outside Izmit, Turkey, aboard a marked C-20C. In 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an unmarked Gulfstream III. In 2003, President George W. Bush flew in the co-pilot seat of a Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Five (VS-35) S-3B Viking from Naval Air Station North Island, California to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with that latter obviously being an exception. Barack Obama used a Gulfstream C-37 variant on a personal trip in 2009.
Trump can use something else than a 747 for what he uses Air Force One for in almost every single instance.
Indeed, the entire topic brings up a lot of things about the risks of having an airplane like this, a luxury airliner inside, which is really a combat aircraft. It makes it easy to forget what it really is, and it makes a President feel like an Emperor, which he is not.
The Aerodrome: This Day In Aviation, May 2, 1925. The Douglas C-1: This Day In Aviation, May 2, 1925.
.jpg)
The East Prussian Offensive and the Samland Offensive ended in Soviet victories.
Today In Wyoming's History: April 25: 1945 Last Boeing B-17 attack against Germany.
Hanna Reitsch flew Luftwaffe General Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin by Hanna Reitsch for a meeting with Hitler in which he was given command of the Luftwaffe and promoted to Field Marshall. Anti aircraft fire resulted in Greim being injured during the flight.
Reitsch lived until 1979 when she died at age 67. There's some speculation that she may have committed suicide with a cyanide capsule she was given at the bunker, but this is speculation based in part on a cryptic letter she sent to former British test pilot and Royal Navy officer Eric Brown. She remained an unrepentant Nazi until her death in some ways, but lived for a time in Ghana where she recanted racist views on Africans. She was a fantastic pilot and remains a fascinating figure, being a woman who succeeded in a male field in the 30s and 40s and in an environment that was hostile to working women. Additionally, she excelled in flying even after the war.
The Luftwaffe's last air victories in World War Two occurred when five Allied bombers were shot down over Aussig.
Italian partisan Miotero Geninetti, age 40, Italian partisan leader, was executed.
Walter Gross, age 40, racist German physician and Nazi politician committed suicide.
Last edition:
The last Pan Am flight out of South Vietnam occured.
Episode 4: Evacuation of Saigon, Wings of Freedom Mission
Six terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang (the "Red Army Faction") seized the West German embassy in Sweden. They took eleven hostages and demanded the release of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, which the German government refused. They after killed two of the hostages before a bomb they took in the embassy accidentally exploded, allowing the hostages to escape and fatally injuring two of the terrorists.
The Swedish army took the rest prisoner.
The change in policy on negotiations with terrorists marked the beginning of the decline of domestic terrorism directed at West Germany.
Colorado Attorney General Joyce Murdoch invalidated all six marriage licenses for same-sex marriages that had been issued by Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex.
Last edition:
The Zhukov-Konev Race to Berlin began.
The British 11th Armored Division liberated Bergen-Belsen under an April 12 agreement to allow the Germans to surrender the camp without resistance.
The 1st Canadian Army captured Arnhem.
A Japanese air raid destroyed many US aircraft on the ground on Okinawa.
Task Force 58 launched fighter sweeps over Kyushu, shooting down 29 Japanese aircraft and destroying 59 on the ground.
Franklin Roosevelt was interred at Hyde Park.
The F-82 Twin Mustang had its first flight.
The U-285, U-1063 and U-1235 were sunk by Allied warships in the North Atlantic.
Joachim Albrecht Eggeling,age 60, German Nazi Gauleiter committed suicide, something that was becoming something of an epidemic amongst Nazi officials.
Gen. Friedrich von Rabenau, age 60, former German officer and Lutheran pastor was executed at Flossenbürg concentration camp for his minor role in the July 20 plot. He had been retired due to his Christian beliefs in 1942.
Last edition:
The first attempted use of the the Yokosuka MXYZ Ohka suicide jet failed when the flight of Betty bombers carrying them towards their target, the US fleet off of Okinawa, was intercepted and all the bombers shot down.
The RAF hit Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen, which also resulted in 125 civilian deaths.
The Royal Air Force hit Venice harbor from the air.
Last edition:
Huff Daland Dusters Inc., a crop dusting company, which would ultimately become Delta Airlines, was founded.
The United States and Estonia signed an agreement for mutual most-favored-nation treatment in customs.
Last edition:
President Coolidge signed the Federal Arbitration Act into law, allowing contractual facilitation of resolving private disputes through arbitration.
For some reason, I don't see the GOP supporting that today.
Imperial Russia's last Prime Minister Nikolai Golitsyn was arrested by the Soviets. He'd be tried and, of course, executed.
German miners in Dortmund stopped work in sympathy with the victims of the Stein mine explosion and a protest against dangerous mining conditions.
The Belgian airline SABENA (Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne) started the air travel between Europe and Central Africa, the first airline to do so.
Last edition:
The serum run ended in success with Balto and Kassen, and team, coming in at 5:30 a.m.
President Coolidge signed the Air Mail Act of 1925 turning over air mail to private contractors, which in turn was a boon for US civil aviation.
Up to then mail order entity Sears, Roebuck, & Co. opened its first department store at 8:30 a.m. in the morning at its its headquarters at Homan Avenue and Arthington Street in Chicago.
Actress Elaine Stritch was born in Detroit.
I don't think there's any thrill in the world like doing work you're good at.
Elaine Stritch
M'eh.
Last edition:
