OK. Some stuff about "Air Force 1" as the weirdo truthers are out in force, yet again, on Biden stuff. So, here's a bit about Air Force 1, which I thought most people understood. But they clearly don't.

Many people think that Air Force 1 is this aircraft...

And those people would be right much of the time. But not all of the time.

The term "Air Force 1" applies to any, ANY, US Air Force airplane that has the President of the United States embarked. Air Force 2 is the term for such with the VP embarked.

Nearly all the time, aircraft based near Washington, at Joint Base Andrews, fill the role for presidential airlift. JB Andrews used to be called "Andrews Air Force Base" but was renamed in 2009, partly because units of all of the services are based there.

The White House Military Office has an office underneath it, which was called Airlift Operations when I worked there, that does the planning, coordination, and advance team work for presidential airlift.

Please note that this isn't just moving the President. It often involves lots of cargo aircraft mission to move vehicles and equipment ahead of time. As shown by this picture I took back in the day.

The actual aircraft for flying the President are normally and almost always from the 89th Airlift Wing, which is based at Andrews. It is worth a tour of these planes...

The Presidential Airlift Squadron flies and maintains 2 VC-25A aircraft, based on the venerable Boeing 747 airframe. There are 2 of these aircraft, tail numbers 28000 and 29000. Photo by me.

There's 2 of those VC-25s. These are used most commonly for "Air Force 1" missions and are broadly identical.

A replacement version, the VC-25B, is somewhere in the acquisition cycle. Historically, development and procurement of presidential airlift assets is, erm, a lengthy drama in its own right, worthy of a thread some other day.

But, as you can imagine, the VC-25 is big and expensive to fly. Depending on where the President wants to go to, it may or may not be the best option.

The exact performance envelope of the VC-25 is sensitive, and I don't actually remember it. But 747-based aircraft need certain runway lengths to take off and land.

The 89th Airlift Wing has two other airlift squadrons, the 1st and the 99th, which operate other aircraft that are fitted out for VIP transport. They aren't tricked out as much as the VC-25 but they aren't bad in their own right.

There's a handful of C-32A aircraft. These are based on the Boeing 757 airliner.

This is the one you saw Biden flying to Delaware on yesterday.

These C-32s are routinely used for Air Force 2 missions for the VP. I flew on it several times myself.

Here's Trump using a C-32

C-32 fact sheet here: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104518/c-32/

The 89th also has the C-40. This is based on the venerable Boeing 737. There's at least 20 C-40s in military service around the world in various configurations.

There are several of these C-40s in use in the 89th Wing for supporting Presidential and Vice Presidential travel. These get use moving cabinet secretaries sometimes.

You don't often see the C-40 in Air Force 1 mode. But it is possible. They've often been used for First Lady travel. Here's Michelle Obama exiting one.

The 89th Airlift wing also operates several variants of the C-37, for smaller requirements.

There were some C-20 Gulfstreams when I was in WHMO, but these are gone now, I believe.

The C-37A is a Gulfstream V.

The C-37B is a Gulfstream 550

These are much smaller and cheaper to operate, but due to the capacity, they rarely get used for routine Air Force 1 missions.

The earlier C-20 (Gulfstream III) was used by Pres Clinton in 1999 for a trip to Turkey and in 2000 for a trip to Pakistan, for security reasons.

I can't categorically rule out that these Gulfstreams have not been used for lower-profile POTUS/VP movements over the years.

Interestingly, President Nixon once used a commercial flight, a United Airlines flight in December 1973. It was referred to as "Executive One" during that flight.

This aircraft saw use as Air Force 1 during the LBJ presidency.

End thread

PS. Here's the plane you don't want to see as Air Force 1. If you see the POTUS get on this one, head to the basement and fill the bathtub.

PPS. Air Force cargo aircraft, such as the C-17, have occasionally been used for Air Force 2 missions, usually to war zones, for security purposes.

VP Pence used a C-17 as AF2 when his C-32 suffered some damage from a bird strike one time.