{"id":21909,"date":"2026-06-19T18:15:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=21909"},"modified":"2026-07-03T06:32:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:32:56","slug":"air-minded-air-force-one-folklore-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=21909","title":{"rendered":"Air-Minded: Air Force One Folklore & Fact (Updated 06\/19\/26)"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was announced today that a gifted Qatari Boeing 747-8 is set to enter service as a temporary Air Force One, pending the 2028 delivery of two new USAF B747-8s scheduled to replace the current B747s, which have been in service since the Reagan administration. The “bridge” Air Force One (as well as the permanent Air Force Ones that will replace it) is, at the direction of Donald Trump, wearing a new paint scheme.<\/p>\r\n

\"af1<\/a>
“Bridge” Air Force One unveiled at Andrews AFB (USAF photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

I was a docent at Tucson’s Pima Air & Space Museum for close to ten years, and during that time published several blog posts about museum aircraft, including PASM’s two former Air Force Ones. Prompted by today’s announcement, I thought I’d share this older post about Air Force One aircraft, focusing on the history of the famous blue & white livery adopted during the Kennedy administration, the paint scheme we’ve all grown used to over the past six decades.<\/p>\r\n

My reaction to Trump’s new red, white, and blue Air Force One? I can’t say I hate it. The Kennedys had a 60+ year run with the design they and Raymond Lowey created in 1962, but nothing stays the same forever. Apart from the wavy flag on the tail, which seems a bit undignified to me, I think the new paint job is sharp.<\/p>\r\n

I’m happy Trump didn’t see fit to change the font of the United States of America lettering on top of the fuselage, a font selected by JFK himself during the creation of the old Air Force One paint scheme. The font, as explained in my original post, below, is the same one chosen by the Founding Fathers for the Declaration of Independence. If that doesn’t make you want to read on, I don’t know what will.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

As a docent at Pima Air & Space Museum<\/a><\/strong>, I conduct tram tours of our outdoor display aircraft. When welcoming visitors at the start of the tour, I ask if anyone wants to know more about any particular airplane. Nine times out of ten, the one people want to hear about is our former Air Force One, a VC-118 (Douglas DC-6) used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.<\/p>\r\n

I wrote about the museum’s presidential fleet aircraft in an earlier post<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0describing\u00a0their history and that of other Air Force One aircraft. Since then I’ve learned more about these famous planes, in the process clarifying (and sometimes correcting) what I knew before.<\/p>\r\n

I’ll share that\u00a0knowledge in this and future posts, but frankly, I’m mostly doing it for me. With so many airplanes to talk about in just one hour, I can only give a few seconds to each. When it comes to the Air Force One, I simplify the story and skip over details. Every now and then, though, a visitor will want to know the details, and I need to be sure I’m able to give the correct answer.<\/p>\r\n

This is Pima Air & Space Museum’s Air Force One:<\/p>\r\n

\"VC-118A<\/a>
VC-118 Liftmaster used as Air Force One by JFK & LBJ<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Folklore has it this was JFK’s favorite plane, despite having a jet Air Force One at his disposal. I don’t know if it really was. I do know the early presidential jets needed long runways. The piston & prop powered VC-118 didn’t, so it got a lot of use, not only for visits to American cities with small airports, but also for family trips home: Hyannisport for the Kennedys, Austin for the Johnsons.<\/p>\r\n

Prior to the Kennedys, there was no standard paint scheme for presidential aircraft. Roosevelt’s C-54, the Sacred Cow, was polished aluminum. Truman’s VC-118, a plane similar to the one at Pima Air & Space, had a fancy paint job with an eagle motif. Eisenhower went back to polished aluminum with his two VC-121 Lockheed Constellations, Columbine II and III.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n
\"VC-54<\/a>
FDR’s Sacred Cow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/td>\r\n
\r\n
\"VC-118<\/a>
Truman’s Independence<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/td>\r\n
\r\n
\"VC-121<\/a>
Ike’s Columbine III<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n

In the last year of Eisenhower’s presidency, 1959, the USAF purchased three new Boeing 707-120s for the presidential fleet (the USAF’s 89th Special Airlift Wing<\/a><\/strong>, which provides airlift for the president, vice president, combat commanders, and other senior government officials). These three aircraft, designated VC-137As (later upgraded to VC-137Bs when the engines were replaced with more powerful ones), were called Special Air Mission (SAM) 970, 971, and 972\u00a0(as a side note, SAM 971 is also on display at Pima Air & Space).<\/p>\r\n

They were the first aircraft to wear this new USAF\u00a0VIP livery:<\/p>\r\n

\"vc137-1\"<\/a>
VC-137A SAM 970 with original paint & markings as used by Eisenhower, 1959-60<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Certainly, this was a substantially different look from the blue & white Air Force One paint scheme we\u00a0know today, which was introduced by the Kennedys in 1962.<\/p>\r\n

The USAF\u00a0didn’t intend\u00a0for the first three jets to be presidential aircraft. They were purchased as general-purpose VIP transports. While they had 40-passenger executive seating and sophisticated communications equipment, they lacked other features the USAF wanted in its first jet age Air Force One. That airplane, an extended-range Boeing 707-353B, had been contracted for and was under construction, but would not be delivered until late 1962.<\/p>\r\n

Regardless of USAF intentions, all three VC-137s, but especially SAM 970\u00a0(nicknamed “Queenie”), were used as Air Force Ones by Eisenhower and Kennedy. Ike used Queenie during his final year in office and JFK used it up until October 1962, when the new 707-353B,\u00a0the famous VC-137C known as SAM 26000, was delivered. At that point SAM 26000\u00a0became the official Air Force One aircraft and the three VC-137s reverted to general VIP use, remaining in the presidential fleet until 1996, transporting vice presidents and other high-ranking officials.<\/p>\r\n

I love to tell museum visitors about the origin of the distinctive and universally-recognizable blue & white livery worn by Air Force One, starting with the story of the red & white paint on Queenie and its sister ships. This story too is a mixture of folklore and fact, but I’m getting\u00a0closer to the facts. Every time a visitor asks me a question about the paint I do a little more research\u00a0in order to give a better answer to the next visitor, and I’m at the point now where I think I have\u00a0it pretty much straight.<\/p>\r\n

Eisenhower was fine with\u00a0Queenie’s red & white markings. Kennedy, though, was not (some historians say he thought the colors were “too imperial”). Jackie, presumably, didn’t like it either. Nor did the new first family like its “U.S. Air Force” and “Military Air Transport Service” markings.\u00a0Even before going to work on the exterior design of the new Air Force One to be delivered in 1962, they had the old markings removed from Queenie and its sister ships,\u00a0replaced with a “United States of America” logo on the top of the fuselage and a prominent American flag on the tail, the better to represent the\u00a0nation, not just the USAF.<\/p>\r\n

\"BI24510\"<\/a>
Queenie (SAM 970) with modified markings as used by JFK, 1961-62 (Boeing file photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Air Force One’s blue & white livery, the\u00a0distinctive design we\u00a0know today, was created by French-American industrial designer Raymond Loewy (famous for the Studebaker\u00a0Champion and Avanti, the Coca-Cola bottle, the paint scheme of the Greyhound Bus Scenicruiser, and the Lucky Strike logo). Some say Jackie hired Loewy, some say Loewy\u00a0approached the White House on his own. From all I can put together, while Loewy was nominally in charge of designing the new Air Force One, both the president and first lady were involved at all stages of the process.<\/p>\r\n

\"Screen<\/a>
Early Raymond Loewy design submission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

You can see that Loewy retained some red in his initial design. The USAF, fearful of potential mid-air collisions, wanted\u00a0red markings\u00a0to make the aircraft more visible in the air. It was JFK himself who insisted on getting rid of red altogether. It was also JFK who suggested the font for the prominent United States of America\u00a0lettering on top,\u00a0the same font used in the header of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\r\n

\"US-original-Declaration-1776\"<\/a>
Original printing of the Declaration, printed July 4, 1776<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Loewy’s\u00a0design, first seen on the\u00a0new Air Force One delivered in October 1962, featured\u00a0polished aluminum on the wings and lower fuselage; slate blue under the nose and on the engine nacelles; a gold stripe below the cabin windows (the gold stripe, they say, was Jackie’s touch); a darker shade of blue (cyan) above the cockpit, down the middle of the fuselage, and on the tail; white on top of the fuselage; and presidential seals on both sides of the nose.<\/p>\r\n

\"SAM<\/a>
SAM 26000, the most famous Air Force One of them all<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

After the new Air Force One, SAM 26000, was fielded in October 1962, the older Air Force Ones\u2014the VC-118 and VC-137s\u2014were repainted in the new livery. Loewy’s\u00a0design became the standard for subsequent Air Force Ones, including the VC-25 Boeing 747s\u00a0in use today.<\/p>\r\n

\"Air_Force_One_over_Mt._Rushmore\"<\/a>
VC-25 SAM 28000<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Although presidents can and do fly on other presidential fleet aircraft as the need arises, only those aircraft specifically designated for presidential travel\u00a0wear the full Air Force One\u00a0livery. Other aircraft in the presidential fleet, the ones used for\u00a0general VIP travel, have similar but different paint, minus the two-tone blue and presidential seals.<\/p>\r\n

\"SAM<\/a>
SAM 26000 in its post-Air Force One days, wearing\u00a0a VIP transport paint scheme<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

No matter what airplane the president flies in, its call sign is Air Force One. There’s a story\u00a0there too,\u00a0which I share with museum visitors. Back in the day, presidential aircraft used standard USAF call signs, an “Air Force” prefix followed by the aircraft tail number. Eisenhower’s Columbine II, the Lockheed Connie he used during his first term in office, flew under the call sign “Air Force 8610.” This was fine, so the story goes, until the day Ike and Air Force 8610 entered the same airspace as United Flight 8610, and an air traffic controller came up on the radio to ask which was which. A Secret Service officer flying with the president heard the radio call and became concerned. He shared his concern with Eisenhower’s staff, and thus was born “Air Force One,” a call sign that cannot be confused with any other.<\/p>\r\n

That’s the story, anyway. Certainly, some kind of incident involving Air Force 8610 and United Flight 8610 did occur, and everyone agrees it led to the creation of the Air Force One callsign. Folklore comes in with the details. It either happened in the airspace over New York City, or somewhere over Florida, or over Virginia while Ike was flying to North Carolina to give a speech. It either happened in 1953 or 1954. The truth is out there somewhere. And I will eventually root it out!<\/p>\r\n

I’ll close with a bonus photo of the Kennedys disembarking from one of the old red & white Air Force Ones, in happier times, May of 1962.<\/p>\r\n

\"jfk_queenie\"<\/a>
VC-137B SAM 970, May 1962<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

Update (5\/25\/18):<\/span><\/strong> Here’s an interesting tidbit about Eisenhower and Queenie, the first jet Air Force One, received today from a fellow PASM docent:<\/em><\/p>\r\n

“During 1959 CIA Director Allen Dulles proposed that the president’s personal airplane\u2014Air Force One\u2014be secretly configured to take photographs during Eisenhower’s planned 1960 trip to Moscow. …<\/p>\r\n

“Dulles did not tell the president of the Air Force One project\u2014undertaken by Lockheed Aircraft Services at their Jamaica, New York, facility and named LIDA ROSE\u2014in an effort to allow Eisenhower the political option of ‘plausible deniability’ should the airplane’s intelligence-gathering capabilities be compromised. … Air Force One’s co-pilot was the camera operator. Test flights demonstrated the success of the project, estimated to cost $1,000,000, and the airplane was readied for the president’s trip to Moscow.<\/p>\r\n

“All for naught! The shoot-down of Francis Gary Powers, 01 May 1960, scuttled the trip.<\/p>\r\n

“The camera gear remained in Air Force One until January 1961, when John Kennedy took office.”<\/p>\r\n

Satellites were on the brink of replacing U-2 overflights. “…it is ironic that Eisenhower himself would have been aboard the last US reconnaissance overflight of the Soviet Union.”<\/p>\r\n

Ref:
SPYFLIGHTS AND OVERFLIGHTS
US Strategic Aerial Reconnaissance
Vol 1: 1945-1960
p 107-109
The above information is footnoted \u00ad\u00ad86:
J F terHorst, and Ralph Albertazzie
THE FLYING WHITE HOUSE: The Story of Air Force One
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1979), 195-98<\/p>\r\n

Update (11\/16\/18):<\/span><\/strong><\/em> During my docent checkout, I was told that PASM’s VC-137B, SAM 971, had never been used to transport a sitting president. It turns out all three of the VC-137s delivered to the Eisenhower administration in 1959 were at different times used by Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. So it transpires that Pima Air & Space has two, not one, former Air Force Ones on display. I updated the paragraphs in the original post dealing with those aircraft. Here, for good measure, is a photo of JFK, freshly disembarked from SAM 971, the same plane now on display at PASM:<\/p>\r\n

\"afo_ken\"<\/a>
JFK with SAM 971, early 1960s (photographer unknown)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n

\u2014 back to the Air-Minded Index<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was announced today that a gifted Qatari Boeing 747-8 is set to enter service as a temporary Air Force One, pending the 2028 delivery of two new USAF B747-8s scheduled to replace the current B747s, which have been in service since the Reagan administration. The “bridge” Air Force One (as well as the permanent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1960,3,64],"tags":[2206,2511,2512,243,2513],"class_list":["post-21909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-minded","category-flying","category-history","tag-air-force-one","tag-eisenhower","tag-jackie","tag-jfk","tag-raymond-loewy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21909"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37482,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21909\/revisions\/37482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}