AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 235 / 305

Plate 235 of 305 · Cold War · Presidential transport

Boeing VC-137C

VC-137C 62-6000 ‘SAM 26000’, painted as VC-137C 62-6000, ‘SAM 26000’, a Boeing 707-353B delivered to the US Air Force’s Special Air Missions fleet at Andrews in October 1962 as the first jet built for the President, which flew Kennedy to Dallas, carried Johnson’s swearing-in on 22 November 1963 and took Nixon to China in 1972, and has been displayed since 1998 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio: a four-engined long-range jet transport with a long circular-section fuselage, a low wing swept at 35 degrees carrying four Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofans in pods on forward-swept pylons, a swept fin with an HF probe from its tip, a swept tailplane and a tricycle undercarriage with four-wheeled main bogies: Raymond Loewy’s presidential scheme, with a bright blue cockpit cap and a blue window band running to the tail cone over a thin gold line and a white stripe, white upper fuselage with ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’ in dark blue capitals, a light blue lower nose, a black radome, polished metal underneath, the presidential seal by the forward door, ‘U. S. AIR FORCE’ on the nose, the star-and-bar on the rear fuselage and port wing, and the US flag above ‘26000’ on the fin, as photographed at Dayton (no VC-137C is preserved in a UK museum; shape from Boeing’s 707 airport-planning document and a Wikimedia Commons three-view; the doors are shown closed, the small stencils are left off and the underwing insignia, unseen in photographs, is omitted).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as VC-137C 62-6000, ‘SAM 26000’, a Boeing 707-353B delivered to the US Air Force’s Special Air Missions fleet at Andrews in October 1962 as the first jet built for the President, which flew Kennedy to Dallas, carried Johnson’s swearing-in on 22 November 1963 and took Nixon to China in 1972, and has been displayed since 1998 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio: a four-engined long-range jet transport with a long circular-section fuselage, a low wing swept at 35 degrees carrying four Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofans in pods on forward-swept pylons, a swept fin with an HF probe from its tip, a swept tailplane and a tricycle undercarriage with four-wheeled main bogies: Raymond Loewy’s presidential scheme, with a bright blue cockpit cap and a blue window band running to the tail cone over a thin gold line and a white stripe, white upper fuselage with ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’ in dark blue capitals, a light blue lower nose, a black radome, polished metal underneath, the presidential seal by the forward door, ‘U. S. AIR FORCE’ on the nose, the star-and-bar on the rear fuselage and port wing, and the US flag above ‘26000’ on the fin, as photographed at Dayton (no VC-137C is preserved in a UK museum; shape from Boeing’s 707 airport-planning document and a Wikimedia Commons three-view; the doors are shown closed, the small stencils are left off and the underwing insignia, unseen in photographs, is omitted). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (2.5 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (VC-137C (707-353B), ‘SAM 26000’ & ‘SAM 27000’); engine, crew and dimensions are for the VC-137C 62-6000 ‘SAM 26000’ modelled here.

History

The VC-137C ‘SAM 26000’

Any US Air Force aircraft carrying the President takes the call sign ‘Air Force One’, but for most people the name means one aeroplane. President Eisenhower made the first presidential jet flights in 1959 in VC-137As, short-bodied Boeing 707s of the Air Force’s Special Air Missions fleet at Andrews, Maryland. In 1961 the Kennedy administration ordered a jet built for the job: a long-range 707-320B Intercontinental with Pratt & Whitney turbofans, designated VC-137C, with an office, a stateroom and seats for staff, guests and press.

The industrial designer Raymond Loewy, asked to improve on the Air Force’s orange-trimmed scheme, gave it the livery it still wears: two blues and white over polished metal, ‘United States of America’ along the fuselage in Caslon capitals, the presidential seal by the door and the flag on the fin. The aircraft, 62-6000, known by its radio call sign ‘SAM 26000’, was delivered on 10 October 1962. In June 1963 it took Kennedy to Berlin, and on 22 November 1963 it flew him to Dallas. That afternoon Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office aboard it at Love Field before it flew Kennedy’s body back to Washington.

SAM 26000 flew Nixon to China in February 1972, and later that year a second VC-137C, 62-27000, took over as the primary presidential aircraft. 26000 stayed in the fleet as the back-up and for the Vice President and other officials until 1998, having served eight presidents and flown more than 13,000 hours. It was then flown to the National Museum of the US Air Force at Dayton, Ohio. SAM 27000 is at the Reagan Library in California, and neither is in a UK museum.

This airframe

VC-137C 62-6000 ‘SAM 26000’

62-6000The airframe modelled

62-6000 is a Boeing 707-353B, constructor’s number 18461, delivered to the Special Air Missions fleet at Andrews in October 1962. It carried eight presidents, from Kennedy to Clinton, and was retired in May 1998 to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Dayton, Ohio, where visitors can walk through it in the Presidential Gallery. The model shows it as it is displayed there, in Raymond Loewy’s scheme: a bright blue cockpit cap and window band over a thin gold line and a white stripe, white upper fuselage with ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’ in dark blue, a light blue lower nose, a black radome and polished metal underneath, light blue engine cowls, the presidential seal by the forward door, the star-and-bar on the rear fuselage and port wing, and the flag above ‘26000’ on the fin. Its shape comes from Boeing’s 707 airport-planning drawings and a three-view; the doors are shown closed, and the small stencils and the underwing insignia, which photographs do not show, are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

SAM 26000, which carried Kennedy to Dallas and Johnson’s swearing-in, is at the National Museum of the US Air Force, Dayton; SAM 27000 is at the Reagan Library in California.

All 305 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.