PHOTO: CECIL STOUGHTON, WHITE HOUSE/JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy disembark from Air Force One on the fateful morning of November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
states in which Mamie Eisenhower had been raised.) Then, later in his presidency, Eisenhower had a larger propeller-driven aircraft available to him, a Lockheed Super Constellation, which he named the Columbine III. But technology was changing fast in the 1950s, and by the end of Eisen- hower’s second term in office, one of the planes available to him was a Boeing 707 Stratoliner jet.
Eisenhower quickly recognized that this new mode of presidential air travel could be used to promote America’s power and prestige, and starting in December 1959, he used his new 707, which was nicknamed Queenie, to make a world tour. In less than three weeks, Queenie took President Eisenhower to eleven countries, including Italy, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Greece, Tunisia, France, Spain, and Morocco. “Not for a moment during the earlier years of my administra- tion,” Eisenhower later wrote, “could such an ambitious trip have been deemed practical.”
The use of the 707 opened up new possibilities for the commander in chief, such as the ability to travel farther and faster. However, during the course of Eisenhower’s world tour, it quickly became apparent that with these new opportunities came new obstacles, not the least of which was the fact that some airports were not equipped to handle a plane like the 707. In Ankara, the capital of Turkey, for instance, the president’s aircrew found that the airport did not have the kind of fuel the new plane required. There were other types of obstacles that had to be overcome on the trip as well. In Kabul, the capital of Afghani- stan, the president’s crew was less than enthusiastic about the airport technicians’ ability to forecast the weather, and safe drinking water was a concern throughout the trip. These and other logistical issues, however, were eventually resolved by the US military, leaving the president with the firm conviction “that the trip was worth the effort it required.”
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Kennedy and Air Force One Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy, took office in 1961. At the time, Kennedy was just forty-three years old. His presidency was to symbolize the beginnings of a cultural shift that was to take place in the United States during the 1960s, and the presidential plane and its public image were to become a part of this radical change in the American cultural landscape.
President Kennedy had two jets available to him during his presi- dency. One was Eisenhower’s 707 and the other was a new 707, which came into service in 1962. Kennedy was aware of the fact that the Secret Service had given the plane carrying the president the code name “Air Force One,” and although the Secret Service wanted to keep this code name a secret, Kennedy felt that with its majesty and elegance the name was an ideal phrase to convey presidential presence. Thus, he authorized his aides to begin using the name “Air Force One” in public.
President Kennedy authorized his aides to begin using the name “Air Force One” in public.
To go along with this public relations move, Air Force One was also given a visual makeover that First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned from Raymond Loewy, the industrial designer of, among other things, Coca Cola’s distinctive glass bottle. Prior to the use of Loewy’s new design, presidential planes had been painted like any other US Air Force transport, bearing the words “United States Air Force” or “Military Air Transport Service.” Loewy’s design, however, did away with these words and brought to Air Force One a new and distinctive design consisting of blue, white, and silver markings adorned with the words “United States of America.” The planes that fulfill the role of Air Force One today are larger, faster, and more
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