It is in the Constitution and probablyin every lawyer's office across the country. The difference between Air Force and Navy pilots in one short video Through his headset, he listens to the report in disbelief. They decide to ask U. S. district judge Sarah T. Hughesa longtime friend of Johnson'sto administer the oath. she asks O'Donnell. As a result, the fries on board can be soggy,CBS Newsnotes. Cecil Stoughton climbs up on a couch, pressing himself against a wall. He can be blunt. The runway at Mildenhall is 9,221 feet in length, according to the base, which is enough for the light 747 to land at and depart from, especially given the short distance of its next flight. During the first 15 years of the Presidential Airlift Group, propeller-driven planes served the President of the United States. ", Rufus Youngblood wants Johnson to spend the night in the White House. Other cars, with still more passengers, have already pulled up to the bottom of the steps at the plane's rear entrance. The Airlift Group was founded in 1944 as the Presidential Pilot Office at the direction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Maybe she would like to change her clothes, wash away the blood. The plane goes pin-drop quiet. Dagger, Swindal knows, is a laconic agent named Rufus Youngblood, a thirty-nine-year-old native of Georgia. He ascends higher than he had ever flown with President Kennedy, high enough to see clearly the curvature of the earth, and for the first time it hits him. Technically the Air Force One designation only applies when the sitting president steps aboard. His name is Ira Gearhart. "He didn't look to the left or the right, and his face looked streaked with tears," she says later. According to Johnson's account, Kennedy tells him he should take the oath in Dallas, and that it is imperative. His conversation is interrupted by the sound of hammering. A snowstorm in the Washington, D.C., area left U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as other members of his entourage, briefly stuck on a U.S. Air Force C-32A jet at Andrews Air Force . This time, he takes the phone. The room begins to fill. The president has risen out of his gold-upholstered chair, ready to be sworn in. Both men tell him he should return to the capital immediately. I managed recently to spend some time with these professionals in their natural habitat. When the U.S. president needs to fly to another city or country, the primary mode of transportation is a huge 747 jetliner dubbed Air Force One. We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better. Hanson, the copilot, rushes into the cockpit, something like numb. "Now is as good a time as any to start," she says. Four-engine 707 jets served as Air Force Ones from 1959 to 1990. "You can't leave me . I forced her back into her seat and placed my body above the president and Mrs. Kennedy . Johnson asks Moyers, Valenti, and Carpenter to work on the speech he will deliver when they arrive at Andrews. His briefcase holds a collection of bulky packets, each bearing wax seals and the signatures of allthe Joint Chiefs. I saw a part of his skull with hair on it lying in the seat. Now O'Brien tears open the box and hands the book to Judge Hughes. The temperature continues to climb. If the president is leaving from the White House, a Marine One helicopter usually flies the president to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Currently with 3 operators they manage all of the communications in and out of the flying #WhiteHouse. He also disconnects Love Field's mobile air-conditioning unit from the plane. With the shades closed and the power mostly off, the plane goes dark. It stays wherever it has landed so that it can take off at a moments notice, as needed. As for that controversial new red, white, and blue paint scheme that President Trump wanted, which is a break from the Kennedy-era blue and white? The two Air Force One planes have been in operation since 1990, so it should come as no surprise that they are in need of an update. He is six foot three, filling the passage. He runs up the ramp and onto the plane. "I know. In the stateroom, Lady Bird Johnson pulls on her coat and hat, looking up at her husband, the president. Inside, the President and his or her travel companions enjoy 4,000 square feet of floor space on three levels, including an extensive suite for the President that features a large office, lavatory, and conference room. "Make it brief. At the weighed-down tail, a truck lift, painted yellow, has been raised into position. Jackie appears in shock. Air Force Two is the radio call sign forthe plane the vice presidentis using. Have you seen videos of the president disembarking from Air Force One and then climbing into his usual tank-like limo even in another country? He pushes his way to the back. The Johnsons ask to go to the adjacentstateroom instead. Those who were charged with protecting Kennedy now sit together in the forward passenger compartment, responsible only for a box. This plane (there are reportedly four of them in existence),the E-B4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, is an airborne nuclear bunker and command center that was designed at the height of the Cold War toresist a nuclear attack. If the Soviet Union is behind the killing, or Cuba, or Vietnam . Behind his closed curtains, he is certain that something larger is afoot. "I jumped onto the left-rear step of the presidential automobile," Hill later remembers. What happens if there is a medical emergency aboard the plane? But, now that we know so much more about Air Force One, its not surprising to learn that keeping our leaders safe doesnt come cheap. It doesnt represent an individual president, says Todd Harrison, the director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Johnsons tell Jackie about their plans for the swearing in. The pilot is soon joined by Thomas, the valet; Sergeant Joseph Ayres, the plane's steward; and the two secretaries, their hands lifted to their mouths. Even Johnson comes up to visit with them, two or three times, asking if they have all the facts they need. Robert Kennedy has been waiting alone for Air Force One, crouched in the back of an Army truck. He knows that Texas was Jackie's first political trip since the death nearly four months ago of her newborns on, Patrickthat President Kennedy thought the sound of cheering might help wash away some of her grief. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on May 22, 2010. "Nothing long," he says. Air Force One | The White House How is Air Force One escorted around the international airspace? Does "Well, I don't know that I had thought out all of the logistics of the leaving of the plane," he will tell Walter Cronkite. Another holds the codes to launch a nuclear attack. Air Force One: 8 Fascinating Facts About the President's Plane In Stoughton's picturesin the less-seen frames before and after the photograph that will come to define the momentsome faces are smiling. "No," Johnson says. Dr. Burkley wants it known that he was with the president when he died. 18 Mind Blowing Facts about Airforce One, The Flying - southreport Liz Carpenter feels him before she sees him. The door swings open. One of the most shocking cases involved an Air Force sargeant allegedly abducted by a saucer-like aircraft. No FBI Agent Should Just Trust Trump to Tell Truth, Republican Senators Form Wingnut Xylophone, How to Line Your Pockets While Reshaping the Court, SCOTUS Ponders Whether to Dub Loans Unforgiven, Effort to Recall N.O. Fehmer leaves the bedroom and heads into the front passenger compartment to pick up another phone. In photographs, she almost disappears. Johnson goes into the relative privacy of the bedroom, Marie Feh-mer and Youngblood following him in. The current planes are Boeing 747s, and the next ones will be too, although they will be a new model that is longer and wider (measured by its wingspan) than its predecessor. Wow! Several cargo planes typically fly ahead of Air Force One to provide the President with vehicles and services needed in remote locations. And they talk about grave sites and eternal flames. The Kennedy people dismissively called him Rufus Cornpone, the sort of man capable of ruining a good suit just by wearing it. Her right glove, white that morning, is caked and stiff with it. Still, it's a pretty impressive journey time for the . You know that I don't know one soul north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and I don't know any of those big-city fellows. General McHugh pounds the table in front of Roberts: "Ken O'Donnell, Larry O'Brien, Dave Powers, and me spent this flight in the tail compartment with the presidentPresident Kennedy." It trails the president in case of an emergency, and just like Air Force One planes, most of its tech specs and capabilities are classified. The White House confirms to Trimble the terrible news. O'Donnell, O'Brien, and Powers; Greer, Kellerman, and Hill; Dr. Burkley and Generals Clifton and McHugh gather at the rear. Swindal doesn't know that Dr. Burkley has joined the long line of men on their knees in front of her, next to the casket. Only in Air Force One's single bedroom is there activity: George Thomas, Kennedy's valet, lays out a fresh set of clothes for the president to change into when he returns. "I wish to God there was something that I could do, and I wanted to tell you that we are grieving with you. That's why, during his second term in office, President Barack Obama ordered a replacement fleet for the Air Force One program that will be built based on the new 747-8 series. Minutes before, it was the subject of a drawn-out fight at Parkland, pushed and pulled between Kennedy's men and county officials citing unbreakable Texas laws regarding the autopsies of murder victims. Air Force One radios Andrews Air Force Base: "Stand by to take off." Only Johnson is active. In the passenger cabin, Stoughton, the White Housephotographer, approaches Liz Carpenter and Marie Fehmer.