page_title: Air Force One
section_title: SAM 26000
hierarchical_section_title: Air Force One / History / Boeing 707s and entry to jet age / SAM 26000
caption_attribution_description: English: Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One at Love Field Airport two hours and eight minutes after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Dallas, Texas. Jackie Kennedy (right), still in her blood-soaked clothes, looks on. Left to right: Mac Kilduff (holding dictating machine), Judge Sarah T. Hughes, Jack Valenti, Congressman Albert Thomas, Marie Fehmer (behind Thomas), First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, President Lyndon B. Johnson, Evelyn Lincoln (eyeglasses only visible above LBJ's shoulder), Congressman Homer Thornberry (in shadow, partially obscured by LBJ), Roy Kellerman (partially obscured by Thornberry), Lem Johns (partially obscured by Mrs. Kennedy), former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Pamela Turnure (behind Brooks), Congressman Jack Brooks, Bill Moyers (mostly obscured by Brooks)
context_page_description: Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used to transport the president. The aircraft are prominent symbols of the American presidency and its power.
  The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the President arose in 1943, when officials of the United States Army Air Forces, the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force, became concerned about using commercial airlines for presidential travel. A C-87 Liberator Express was reconfigured for use as the first dedicated VIP-and-presidential transport aircraft and named Guess Where II, but the Secret Service rejected it because of its safety record. A C-54 Skymaster was then converted for presidential use; dubbed the Sacred Cow, 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 1953, after a Lockheed Constellation named Columbine II carrying President Dwight D.
context_section_description: Under John F. Kennedy, presidential air travel entered the jet age. He had used the Eisenhower-era jets for trips to Canada, France, Austria, and the United Kingdom. Then in October 1962, the U.S. Air Force purchased a Boeing C-137 Stratoliner, a modified long-range Boeing 707—Special Air Mission (SAM) 26000.
  The Air Force had designed a special presidential livery in red and metallic gold, with the nation's name in block letters. Kennedy felt the aircraft appeared too regal, and, on advice from his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he contacted the French-born American industrial designer Raymond Loewy for help in designing a new livery and interiors for the VC-137 jet. Loewy met with the president, and his earliest research on the project took him to the National Archives, where he looked at the first printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence; he saw the country's name set widely spaced and in upper case in Caslon typeface. He chose to expose the polished aluminum fuselage on the bottom side and used two blues – slate-blue associated with the early republic and the presidency and a more contemporary cyan to represent the present and future. The presidential seal was added to both sides of the fuselage near the nose, a large American flag was painted on the tail, and the sides of the aircraft read "United States of America" in all capital letters. Loewy's work won immediate praise from the president and the press. The VC-137 markings were adapted for the larger VC-25A when it entered service in 1990.
  SAM 26000 was in service from 1962 to 1998, serving Presidents Kennedy to Clinton. On 22 November 1963, SAM 26000 carried President Kennedy to Dallas, Texas, where it served as the backdrop as the Kennedys greeted well-wishers at Dallas's Love Field. Later that afternoon, Kennedy was assassinated, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson assumed the office of President and took the oath of office aboard SAM 26000. On Johnson's orders, the plane carried Kennedy's body back to Washington. A decade later, SAM 26000 took Johnson's body home to Texas after his state funeral in Washington.
  The Air Force usually does not have fighter aircraft escort the presidential aircraft over the United States but it has occurred. The first instance came during the state funeral of John F. Kennedy with it was followed by 50 fighters, (20 Navy and 30 Air Force) representing the states of the union.
  Johnson used SAM 26000 to travel extensively domestically and to visit troops in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. SAM 26000 served President Nixon on several groundbreaking overseas voyages, including his famous visit to the People's Republic of China in February 1972 and his trip to the Soviet Union later that year, both firsts for an American president. Nixon dubbed the plane the "Spirit of '76" in honor of the forthcoming bicentennial of the United States; that logo was painted on both sides of the plane's nose.
  SAM 26000 is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
caption: The most famous photo ever taken aboard a presidential aircraft.[20] Hours after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in just before take off for Washington.
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