If you’ve read this blog over the years, you may remember that a few years back Chris asked a couple of questions about Air Force One — the President’s airplane. I think one of the questions concerned the American Flag painted on the tail fin… you can check the archives if you’re interested.
I ran across those entries a few days ago while I was looking for something else and decided that the first Air Force One might be a good topic for today.
Presidents before Dwight D. Eisenhower didn’t have their own airplane — most of them rarely traveled by air. The first Air Force One wasn’t a jet, and it wasn’t even called Air Force One. The airplane was built by Lockheed and was referred to simply as a Lockheed Constellation (technically, it was a Lockheed VC-121 Constellation, but the number nomenclature was rarely used to distinguish its type as many airplane models do today.)
The Lockheed Constellation was one of the nicest looking and most popular of the airliners built in the 1950s. What turned out to be the President’s plane rolled off the assembly line in Burbank, California on December 22, 1948 — it was purchased by the Air Force. Eisenhower used the aircraft for a trip to Korea shortly after he was elected president in November 1952. Shortly after that trip, the airplane was converted into a VIP transport for him. The outfitting of the airplane was a far cry from the current Air Force One. Instead of all the secure communications capability available today, the Air Force installed a mahogany desk that featured buttons to activate a phone that could connect to landlines at airport terminals.
The Constellation wasn’t large enough to hold the president’s entire staff (plus the press.) The cabin had only 16 seats. The crew was also much larger than today’s crews and consisted of a radio operator, flight engineer, and navigator… plus the pilot and co-pilot.
I mentioned that the first presidential plane wasn’t called Air Force One — it was named Columbine II. I think the name was chosen by Eisenhower — the Columbine is the state flower of Colorado and Eisenhower’s wife (Mamie) was from Colorado, so that may have been the reason for the name.
Not only was Columbine II the first “Air Force One,” it was the only Air Force One to serve only one president. In November, 1954, President Eisenhower upgrade to a newer model — Lockheed’s Super Constellation. The original Columbine II was transferred to Pan American World Airways for two years before being returned to the Air Force. It served the military until 1968 when it was put into storage at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base in Arizona. It was auctioned to a private owner in 1970. In 2003, the airplane was sent to a boneyard at the Marana Regional Airport near Tucson.
The airplane was recently purchased by a private firm that plans to restore it….
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