Air Force One is the official air traffic control–designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. The term is commonly used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used to transport the president, and as a metonym for the primary presidential aircraft, VC-25 or VC-25B, although it can be used to refer to any Air Force aircraft the president travels on.
The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the president arose during World War II when military advisors in the Department of War were concerned about the risk of using commercial airlines for presidential travel. In 1944, the Douglas C-54 Skymaster was converted for use as the first purpose-built presidential aircraft. Dubbed the Sacred Cow and operated by the U.S. Army Air Force, it carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and was used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman.
The "Air Force One" call sign was created in 1954, after a Lockheed Constellation carrying President Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same flight number. Since the introduction of SAM 26000 in 1962, the primary presidential aircraft has carried the distinctive livery designed by Raymond Loewy.
Other aircraft designated as Air Force One have included another Lockheed Constellation, Columbine III; three Boeing 707s, introduced in the 1960s and 1970s; and since 1990, two Boeing VC-25A (highly customized Boeing 747-200B) aircraft. The Boeing VC-25B Bridge, a modified Boeing 747-8 received as a gift from the Qatari government, entered service on 1 July 2026. The US Air Force has ordered two Boeing 747-8s, designated Boeing VC-25Bs, to serve as the next presidential aircraft; these are expected to enter service no earlier than 2027 or 2028.
From time to time, presidents have invited other world leaders to travel with them on Air Force One. In 1973, President Richard Nixon invited Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev to fly with him to California from Washington, D.C. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan and Queen Elizabeth II toured the U.S. West Coast aboard the aircraft.
Contents
History
20th century
On 11 October 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first US president to fly in an aircraft, an early Wright Flyer from Kinloch Field near St. Louis, Missouri. He was no longer in office at the time, having been succeeded by William Howard Taft. The record-making occasion was a brief overflight of the crowd at a county fair but was nonetheless the beginning of presidential air travel.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to fly in an aircraft while in office. The first aircraft obtained specifically for presidential travel was a Douglas Dolphin amphibian modified with luxury upholstery for four passengers and a small separate sleeping compartment. Designated RD-2 by the US Navy, it was delivered in 1933 and based at the naval base at Anacostia in Washington, D.C. The aircraft remained in service as a presidential transport from 1939.
During World War II, German submarines operating in the Atlantic Ocean made air travel the preferred method of VIP transatlantic transportation. In 1943, Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca Conference in Morocco on the Dixie Clipper, a Pan Am-crewed Boeing 314 flying boat, on a flight that covered 5,500 miles (8,890 km) in three legs.
Concerned about relying upon commercial airlines to transport the president, officials of the United States Army Air Forces, the predecessor of the US Air Force, ordered the conversion of a military aircraft to accommodate the special needs of the commander-in-chief. In 1943, a C-87A transport, number 41-24159, was modified to carry President Franklin D. Roosevelt on international trips. But after a review of the C-87's controversial safety record, the Secret Service flatly refused to approve the aircraft for presidential carriage. The C-87, a derivative of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber, also carried more militaristic associations than aircraft designed for transport. The aircraft, named Guess Where II, was used to transport senior members of the Roosevelt administration on various trips. In March 1944, it flew Eleanor Roosevelt on a goodwill tour of several Latin American countries. The C-87 was scrapped in 1945.
The Secret Service subsequently reconfigured a Douglas C-54 Skymaster for presidential transport duty. The VC-54C aircraft, nicknamed the Sacred Cow, included a sleeping area, radiotelephone, and retractable battery-powered elevator to lift Roosevelt in his wheelchair. The VC-54C flew President Roosevelt only once, to the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
21st century
When President George W. Bush left office in January 2009, he flew to Texas in a VC-25 that used call sign SAM 28000, as it did not carry the current president of the United States. Similar arrangements were made for former presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. President Donald Trump flew to his Mar-a-Lago estate aboard Air Force One on the final day of his first presidency in January 2021.
After the deaths of former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, VC-25 aircraft flew their remains to their home states of Michigan and California, respectively.
On 27 April 2009, a low-flying VC-25 circled New York City for a photo-op and training exercise, alarming many New Yorkers.
During Joe Biden's 2023 visit to Ukraine, the Air Force One call sign was not used for the C-32 aircraft he flew to Poland; to increase secrecy, the call sign was SAM060.
When flying with the President, Air Force One rarely flies alone. It is often accompanied by a fleet of aircraft that can include the back-up VC-25, cargo aircraft, and tankers. In such cases, up to half a dozen cargo aircraft, such as the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III or the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, precede AF1 by a couple days or more, bringing the presidential limousine and Sikorsky VH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, along with Secret Service personnel and several hundred maintenance crew. Longer trips are accompanied by tankers, such as the McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender, to limit the need to stop for fuel and ensure that AF1 does not take fuel from an unvetted source.
The support aircraft will often use several airports in a region to minimize the impact to one particular airport, and Secret Service may also preposition a Gulfstream C-37B or Boeing E-4 in a neighboring region for backup.
In addition to the president, staff, and flight crew, a VC-25A can carry 102 guests in typical domestic business-class seats. The back-up VC-25 typically flies with 14 crew, two pilots, six flight crew, two cooks, and four flight attendants. When transporting the president, the primary VC-25A has three cooks and 15 flight attendants, 20 or more Secret Service agents, and some 40 members of the presidential press pool. During international state visits, another aircraft may be chartered to accommodate another 150 or more journalists and security personnel.
Planned replacement
VC-25B
The VC-25As are to be replaced as the cost of maintaining the aging systems on their 30-year-old airframes and less efficient GE-CF6 engines has begun to surpass the cost of acquiring a new aircraft. On 28 January 2015, the Air Force announced that the Boeing 747-8I would be the next presidential aircraft. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated the total cost at $3.2 billion, and the US Air Force's budget for the program is projected to be nearly $4 billion. In December 2016, Boeing was on contract for preliminary development worth $170 million (~$217 million in 2024).
During his first presidency, Donald Trump renegotiated aspects of the contract with Boeing, and threatened to cancel the program if the overall cost exceeded $4 billion. In an effort to cut costs, the Air Force contracted to purchase two completed but undelivered Transaero 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft from Boeing in 2017.
The following year, Boeing struck a deal with Trump to adorn the new VC-25Bs with a "patriotic color scheme" livery featuring a deep red stripe down the middle of the aircraft and a dark blue underbelly. After the 2020 election, Biden scrapped Trump's color scheme favoring the former robin's egg-blue Air Force One design made public in March 2023. However in 2026, the reelected Trump administration restored the patriotic livery for the two future VC-25Bs, as well as the interim Qatari aircraft and Air Force Two. The first VC-25B is scheduled to be delivered in 2027, while the second will come the following year.
Supersonic aircraft
In September 2020, the US Air Force announced several presidential and executive airlift directorate contracts signed with aircraft manufacturers to begin development of a supersonic aircraft that could function as Air Force One. Contracts have been signed with Exosonic, Hermeus, and Boom.
Boeing 747-8 from the royal family of Qatar
On 21 May 2025, the Trump administration accepted a Boeing 747-8 as a gift from the royal family of Qatar. The administration planned to use it as the new Air Force One. With an estimated value of US$400 million, this was the most valuable gift extended to the US from a foreign government. For this aircraft to be used as Air Force One, it required extensive inspection and modifications to afford the protection to the president that current Air Force One aircraft required. These modifications were reported to be completed after 2028. On 28 May 2025, the Washington Post reported that no deal had been agreed because Qatar required a memorandum of understanding confirming that any transfer request had been initiated by the US to ensure that Qatar had no legal liability. On 7 July 2025, Pete Hegseth signed the memorandum of understanding.
On 1 May 2026, the Air Force announced that N7478D, now the VC-25B Bridge aircraft, had completed modifications by L3Harris and finished flight testing. The aircraft was painted in Trump's preferred red, white, blue with gold stripe livery and waved American flag tailfin was delivered to the Presidential Airlift Group in summer 2026. On 19 June 2026, the new aircraft was officially unveiled at Joint Base Andrews. Trump took the first flight on the plane as Air Force One on a 1 July trip to North Dakota for the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The aircraft made its first international flight as Air Force One the following week, when it carried Trump to the 2026 Ankara NATO summit in Turkey on July 7th. The VC-25B Bridge departed for RAF Mildenhall without Trump the following day. Trump was initially reported to have departed for Mildenhall on a VC-25A following the summit. Trump said his departure on the VC-25A was "for old time's sake". However, defense publication TWZ reported that the decision to use the VC-25A came amid heightened security concerns surrounding the president, noting concerns that had been raised about the defensive capabilities of the VC-25B Bridge. The New York Times reported that the swap was precautionary and made at the advice of the US Secret Service rather than in response to a specific threat. The Washington Post later reported that Trump had not flown on the VC-25A, but had instead been secretly transferred to a C-32A, with the VC-25A acting as a decoy.
On 4 July, the plane performed in the D.C. military flyovers during the America 250 celebration. On 19 July, Trump said the VC-25B Bridge would be temporarily taken out of service "in about a month or so" to be "maxed out", referring to planned upgrades to the aircraft. Trump did not specify what would be upgraded. TWZ noted that, unlike the VC-25A, the VC-25B Bridge lacks visible defensive systems. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump would fly on the VC-25A while the bridge aircraft was being upgraded. Trump was expected to continue using the VC-25B Bridge for domestic trips and some international visits to lower-risk destinations before the aircraft was upgraded. The VC-25B Bridge performed flyovers over D.C. during the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on 23 August 2026.
Other presidential aircraft
During the Johnson Administration, the United States Air Force acquired a Beechcraft King Air B90 which was designated VC-6A (66-7943). The aircraft was used to transport President Johnson between Bergstrom Air Force Base and his family ranch near Johnson City, Texas, and was used at least once to transport the President to Princeton, New Jersey. It was referred to as Lady Bird's airplane and later in its service life featured a basic color scheme similar to civilian aircraft. When the President was aboard, the aircraft used the call sign Air Force One.
United Airlines is the only commercial airline to have operated Executive One, the call sign given to a civilian flight on which the US president is aboard. On 26 December 1973, President Richard Nixon and his family flew as commercial passengers on a United DC-10 from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles International Airport. His staff explained that this was done to conserve fuel by not having to fly the usual Boeing 707 Air Force aircraft.
In November 1999, President Bill Clinton flew from Ankara, Turkey, to Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station outside Izmit, Turkey, aboard a marked C-20C (Gulfstream III) using the call sign Air Force One, escorted by three F-16s.
On 8 March 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an unmarked Gulfstream III while another aircraft with the call sign Air Force One flew on the same route a few minutes later. This diversion was reported by several US press outlets.
On 1 May 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 off the California coast, where Bush delivered his "Mission Accomplished" speech. During the flight, the aircraft used the call sign of "Navy One" for the first time. This aircraft is now on display at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.
Barack Obama used the Gulfstream C-37 variant on a personal trip in 2009 to visit the production of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone in New York.
Aircraft on display
A Lockheed VC-140B Jetstar used by Lyndon Johnson during his presidency is on display at the LBJ Ranch (now the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park) in Stonewall, Texas. The ranch's runway was too small to accommodate the Boeing 707, so President Johnson flew it to Bergstrom AFB in Austin, then transferred to the smaller JetStar for the short flight to the ranch. Another VC-140B used during the Johnson presidency is on display at the Hill Aerospace Museum which uncovered presidential markings on the plane while stripping the paint for restoration.
A McDonnell Douglas VC-9C used by Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton is on display at Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California, next to the former Castle Air Force Base. Another VC-9C has been at Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, Delaware, since 2011.
VC-137B SAM 970, used from 1959 to 1962 as Air Force One and until 1996 in the presidential fleet, is on display at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.
In popular culture
A fictionalized version of Air Force One is depicted in the 1997 feature film Air Force One. The cabin was built to scale and is as accurate as the production designers could possibly make it. "There weren't any blueprints or floor plans available, so we had to watch CNN to see what the inside looked like," said the film's director Wolfgang Petersen.
