Air Force One

Air Force One is the radio call sign used by any Air Force aircraft with the President aboard, adopted in 1953 after a plane carrying President Dwight Eisenhower shared a flight number with a commercial airliner in the same airspace. Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to fly in office, in 1943, and John Kennedy's Boeing 707, delivered in 1962, gave the plane its blue and white look. Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office aboard that plane in Dallas after Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

Since 1990 the main presidential aircraft have been two Boeing 747-200s known as VC-25As, flown by the 89th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. They can be refueled in flight and carry secure communications, a medical suite, offices, a conference room, and space for staff, guests, the Secret Service, and a pool of reporters. Cargo planes fly ahead carrying the presidential motorcade and equipment. On September 11, 2001, Air Force One kept the President aloft for hours while officials assessed the threat.

Boeing won a fixed-price contract in 2018 to build two replacement VC-25B aircraft, but the program has run years late and billions of dollars over Boeing's budget, with delivery now expected in 2028. In May 2025 the administration accepted a Boeing 747-8 from the government of Qatar, which L3Harris converted into an interim presidential aircraft that the Air Force accepted on June 19, 2026. Supporters said the interim plane met an urgent need, while critics raised concerns about security, cost, and accepting a gift from a foreign government.