Air Force One

I had a personal tour of Air Force One by Col. Tillman the (ex) chief pilot, about a year ago. Really cool, sat in the presidents chair, yada yada, but the really cool part was sitting in the left seat with Col. Tillman in the right telling the story of flying into Iraq for the surprise Thanksgiving visit,landing in zero/zero conditions, etc etc. If you ever get the chance, take it!

 

The closest I have AFO anything was polishing the first jet powered plane used as AFO, SAM970. I have never seen the current AFO 747.
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I have not been on the 747s but did work on and did a test flight with the prior 707 72-7000. The aircraft is/was incredibly clean everywhere; inside the wheel wells was probably clean enough to eat off of. Some of the crew said that it was possible to tell between the older back-up 707 and the then regular one by the polished aluminum - the older was was brighter since it had more years of polishing.

Inside the aircraft was really austere and nothing special. They went to great lengths to ensure that nothing looked actually nice.

There are now discussions of buying replacement Air Force Ones.

Jeff

 

I live in Dallas and saw it several times when "W" used to fly in. Very impressive.

I'll not forget the armada that accompanies AFO in the air and on the ground. Once I heard it was coming in and went to a strategic location to watch it land. When it got close, it was preceeded by the helo fleet (Blackhawks) and then the Dallas PD helos hovered around the perimeter of the airport and closed the airspace down while AFO landed. It was odd because I knew I was being watched by probably more than one pair of eyes.

Once I saw it on departure and that thing is GONE as soon as the door was closed behind "W". Again, with airspace closed except for AFO, it taxied at a very high rate of speed, went to the parallel runway on the opposite side of the airport (presumably to throw off any bad guys on the side of the airport where it had been parked??) and was wheels up just a couple of minutes after the door closed. Coolest part was the black suburban with armed guys hanging out the back that chased AFO all the way down the runway and then immediately peeled off and drove into the belly of the C-7 (or whatever cargo plane carries the armada around).

 

Speaking of "black suburbans" -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkmBH-MjZF4

 

i did get a chance to shoot 92-9000 back in Phoenix a few years ago.

http://www.planespotters.net/Aviation_Photos/photo.show?id=006585

and recently took a tour through 3 AF-ones at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio.

 

I am probably getting to be an old story that is long in the tooth but I worked on the original 707 ( VC-137) AF -1 and the 747 AF-1 many years ago. I didn't do very much but it was something, something of which to be proud. They were both damn good airplanes with the 747 being much better. That airplane will go down in history as being one of Boeing's best with the 777, on which I also had a great deal to do with, being another all time great Boeing airplane. The 777 is the last aluminum airplane that Boeing will build but it will be one of the all time best. It is difficult for me to believe that 20 years has past since seven of us in my group were tapped to start the program.
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