Before the 747: The Wild Fleet That Made Air Force One

It’s routine now: The President emerges from Air Force One, one more frame in an endless loop of ritual arrivals. But the protocols and photo op, the mission procedures and famous call sign, are all legacies of aviation’s presidential pioneers — the platforms and presidents who forged this flight path well before the current generation of 747-based VC-25 Air Force Ones entered service in 1990.

With U-Boats menacing the Atlantic, Franklin Roosevelt became the first sitting President to fly, journeying to the Casablanca Conference in (then) French Morocco in 1943. A Boeing 314 flying boat, “Dixie Clipper,” operated by Pan American World Airways, took Roosevelt from Miami to West Africa. A Douglas C-54 Skymaster DC-4-based transport, using a crewman from Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA’s predecessor), flew the final overland leg. Wartime censorship rules and a compliant press kept the 22-day mission secret, but once reported, the fait accompli validated the necessity and feasibility of presidential air travel. 

Shortly after, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established what would evolve into the Presidential Airlift Group, now under the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, to manage the Commander in Chief’s air transport. 

In 1945 the USAAF evaluated a modified C-87A, transport variant of the Consolidated B-24D Liberator Express heavy bomber, for presidential use (named “Guess Where II”), but selected a Skymaster as the first purpose-modified Presidential aircraft. Designated the VC-54C (“V” for VIP/staff transport; “C” for cargo transport), the airframe mated a C-54A fuselage to C-54B wings, and was outfitted with a rectangular, bulletproof window and a battery powered elevator to hoist the wheelchair-bound President aboard. Officially dubbed the Flying White House, it was better known by its nickname, Sacred Cow. Roosevelt died in office shortly after his only trip onboard, to the 1945 Yalta Conference.

Harry Truman, Roosevelt’s successor, used Sacred Cow extensively, and subsequently signed the 1947 National Security Act, separating US ground and aerial force commands, onboard, earning its distinction as “birthplace of the US Air Force.”

That same year, Truman upgraded to a purpose-built VC-118 Liftmaster, a Douglas DC-6 airliner-based transport, named “The Independence” —Truman’s Missouri hometown.

Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower’s term spanned the piston and jet ages, reflected in the range of aircraft he flew. As NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (1951–52), a VC-121A Lockheed Constellation named “Columbine” (state flower of Colorado, his wife’s childhood home), served as his flagship, and upon taking office in 1953, a VC-121A-LO (Columbine II), based on the Model 749 Constellation, became his primary lift. 

USAF aircraft used tail numbers for radio identification, and Columbine II’s was #48-610 — or Air Force 8610, when communicating on frequency. In 1953, with Eisenhower onboard, Air Force 8610 was flying in airspace reportedly near Richmond, Virginia, as was Eastern Airlines Flight 8610. Recognizing potential future confusion created by similar flight IDs, pilots began using the call sign Air Force One when the President was onboard, subsequently becoming standard FAA ATC procedure. 

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Columbine III, a VC-121E-LO Lockheed 1049C Super Constellation, replaced Columbine II later that year. 

A pilot himself, Ike often took the controls of twin-engine piston Aero Commander 560As (USAF L-26B) — history’s smallest fixed-wing Air Force Ones — to fly between Washington and his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania farm. He also pioneered presidential rotorcraft, first flying in 1957 on an Air Force Bell H-13J Sioux, military version of the iconic piston-single Bell 47 helicopter. (Marine One and Army One helicopter call signs were instituted soon thereafter.) 

By this time the “SAM” aircraft designation – USAF shorthand for “Special Air Mission” — had become the call sign prefix for executive fleet transports when the President was not onboard. 

The Jet Age and Cold War amped demand for speed, range, and capability; Soviet officials had been flying on Tupolev Tu-104 jetliners since 1956. In 1959 the Air Force acquired three Boeing 707-153s outfitted for VIP transport, launching the 707-series presidential jets that would serve as Air Force Ones until 1990. Designated the VC-137A (and converted to B models via re-engining), they retained their Military Air Transport Service VIP international orange and natural metal livery. That same year Eisenhower went to Germany on the first of the modified trio, “Queenie” (SAM 970), adding “first President to fly on a jet” to the Chief Executive logbook. 

In 1961, with John Kennedy in the White House, the USAF ordered a 707-353B Intercontinental from Boeing, designated VC-137C, serial # 62-6000 (SAM 26000), the first jet outfitted for a President. Inducted in 1962, its iconic two-tone blue and white livery, developed with industrial designer Raymond Loewy, was the first for a presidential fleet, and dressed the aircraft for more than 50 years.

To access his Hyannis vacation compound and smaller airports, Kennedy often used a C-118A Liftmaster. Meanwhile the Air Force One call sign became widely recognized during his administration. The photo opportunities created by a presidential arrival, staging that evolved over administrations, also achieved new levels of media attention during the Kennedy years, culminating with the tragic trip to Dallas. 

Sworn in onboard SAM 26000, Lyndon Johnson also used a Liftmaster for last mile travel to his Stonewall, Texas ranch, along with a VC-6A (Beechcraft King Air B90); and VC-140Bs, VIP-outfitted Model 1329 JetStars, which Johnson called, “Air Force One-Half.”

During Richard Nixon’s term, the newly introduced Boeing 747 was considered as a replacement for SAM 26000, but instead in 1972 a second VC-137C (SAM 27000) was ordered, delivered that same year. 

Nixon looms large in Presidential call sign history: During 1973’s energy crisis, he flew aboard a commercial flight, which assumed the “Executive One” call sign, per FAA procedures for civilian aircraft carrying the Chief Executive — its only such use to date; and in 1974, when his resignation from the Presidency became effective while airborne, the flight’s call sign changed from Air Force One to SAM 27000.

For additional small airport access, Gerald Ford used a VC-131H (Convair 240/340) Samaritan – the aircraft’s only widely-documented use by a President — and VC-9Cs, McDonnell Douglas DC-9-based transports. Three VC-9Cs were delivered in 1975 and used by succeeding Presidents from Jimmy Carter through George H. Bush for smaller airfields.

Ronald Reagan’s years saw the C-12 Huron, a Beechcraft Super King Air/1900 variant, join the presidential fleet, and C-20A/Bs (VIP Gulfstream GIIIs) began to replace JetStars.

During his last term, two 747-200B-based VC-25As were ordered to replace the aging 707s. Expected by 1987, delays stalled delivery until 1990, a year after George H. Bush took office. In 2004, VC-25A SAM 28000 transported Reagan’s remains to the Capitol to lie in state, a flight the Air Force called “his first ride in it.”

Far from forgotten relics, many of these historic aircraft are on display and open to the public. The USAF Museum’s Presidential Gallery in Dayton, Ohio includes Sacred Cow, The Independence, Columbine III, and SAM 26000. SAM 27000 is at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. Queenie is at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. Kennedy’s VC-118A Liftmaster resides at Pima Air and Space Museum in Arizona, and an “Air Force One-Half” JetStar is at Johnson’s National Historical Park in Stonewall, Texas.