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Undated: The President of the United States must be ready to travel anywhere in the world on a moment’s notice. Fortunately, modern Presidents have access to a variety of transportation options — including flying aboard Air Force One.
Technically, Air Force One is used to describe any Air Force aircraft carrying the President — but since the middle of the 20th century, it has been standard practice to refer to specific planes that are equipped to transport the Commander-in-Chief. Today, this name refers to one of two highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft, which carry the tail codes 28000 and 29000. The Air Force designation for the aircraft is VC-25A.
Air Force One is one of the most recognizable symbols of the presidency, spawning countless references not just in American culture but across the world. Emblazoned with the words “United States of America,” the American flag, and the Seal of the President of the United States, it is an undeniable presence wherever it flies.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/air-force-one/
Undated: 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 describes those U.S. Air Force aircraft designed, built, and used to transport the president.[1] The presidential aircraft is a prominent symbol of the American presidency and its power.[2]
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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 over the reliance on commercial airlines to transport the president. 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; this aircraft, dubbed the Sacred Cow, carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and was subsequently used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman.
The "Air Force One" call sign was created after a 1953 incident during which a Lockheed Constellation named Columbine II, carrying President Dwight D. Eisenhower, entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same flight number.[3][4][5]
A number of aircraft types have been used as Air Force One since the creation of the presidential fleet, starting with two Lockheed Constellations in the late 1950s: Columbine II and Columbine III. It also operated two Boeing 707s, introduced in the 1960s and 1970s; since 1990, the presidential fleet has been two Boeing VC-25As, which are specifically configured, highly customized Boeing 747-200B series aircraft. The U.S. Air Force plans to procure the Boeing 747-8 for the next version of Air Force One.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_One
Undated: The White House Museum -- Air Force One
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/special/AF1/
-- 2018 --
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June 30: US President Donald Trump was fooled by a comedian into taking a prank call while on board Air Force One.
Comedian John Melendez posed as Senator Bob Menendez. He says he spoke to the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner and received a call back from Mr Trump.
Mr Melendez said he claimed to be Senator Menendez and a fake assistant.
"Sometimes the [President's] channels are open too widely and mistakes like this happen," a White House official told CNN.
Senator Menendez is a Democratic senator from New Jersey and a long-time campaigner for immigration reform.
Mr Melendez, who goes by the stage name Stuttering John, recorded his conversations with the US president and uploaded on his podcast.
On the recording, the voice that is purportedly Mr Trump congratulates Mr Menendez for his 2017 acquittal in a bribery case.
He was accused of accepting gifts from a Florida eye doctor in exchange for political influence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44666242
July 18: Trump's 'incredible' Air Force One to be red, white and blue, cost $3.9 billion
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/07/18/donald-trump-air-force-one-red-white-and-blue-cost-3-9-billion/794735002/
-- 2019 --
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Undated: Showdown: Air Force One vs Trump Force One
For four presidents, the two Boeing 747s that together operate as Air Force One have served as a mobile symbol of American prowess — an airborne White House from which the Leader of the Free World can hop around the globe with his support staff while maintaining 24/7 secure communications in order to run the country and command the military. President-elect Donald Trump, however, rates the planes a “meh.” He owns a 25-year-old Boeing 757 dubbed “Trump Force One” and claims Air Force One “a step down” from it “in every way.”
https://www.mensjournal.com/gear/how-superior-is-boeings-new-air-force-one-to-trumps-plane-you-be-the-judge-w454273/
March 19: During his presidential transition process in 2016, Donald Trump published a tweet complaining about Boeing and the cost of a new Air Force One. The Republican, for reasons that have never been clear, insisted that “costs are out of control.” With the price tag for the project likely to top $4 billion, Trump said via Twitter, “Cancel order!”
The order, of course, was not actually canceled. Two months later, before his presidency had even reached the one-month mark, Trump returned to the subject, bragging about cutting the cost of the new Air Force One, though his boasts weren’t at all true.
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Nevertheless, in July 2018, the president announced that he’d successfully negotiated “a good deal” on the project, saving taxpayers over a billion dollars on the new planes, which he said would now cost $3.9 billion.
Defense One reported yesterday that the figure Trump and the White House have touted for months isn’t the same figure that appears in the Department of Defense’s budget.
