This Boeing VC-137C is the first custom-built jet to serve as Air Force One. Codenamed Special Air Mission -- or SAM -- 26000, the airliner witnessed more presidential history than any other -- ranging from the tragic to the hilarious. It sits in the Presidential Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
SAM 26000 may be "the most important historical airplane in the world," said Air Force historian Jeff Underwood. It supported a mission to open U.S relations with China and flew to secret Paris peace talks during the Vietnam War. But it's probably most closely tied to President John F. Kennedy, who first used it in 1962.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
First lady Jacqueline Kennedy and the president exit SAM 26000 in Texas in November 1963, just hours before the president would be assassinated. Five months earlier, the plane had flown Kennedy to Berlin, where he delivered his historic "I am a Berliner" address.
National Archives
This is likely the most famous photograph ever taken aboard any presidential aircraft. Hours after the attack -- and shortly before SAM 26000 left Dallas -- Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president with the first lady at his side. Federal Judge Sarah Hughes administered the oath, the only woman ever to do so.
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At Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, the president's casket was offloaded onto an ambulance from SAM 26000, where it had been placed in the rear of the cabin. "The crew didn't want President Kennedy's casket to travel in the cargo hold," said then-flight engineer Joe Chappell on C-SPAN in 1998. "So they made room for it in the passenger compartment." To create the extra space, Chappell said he helped remove two rows of seats and a separating wall.
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The president's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was anxious to board the plane after it arrived. Shown here with the first lady, RFK "leaped up" the airline stairs in a rush to console Mrs. Kennedy, according to historian Steven Gillon. He "pushed his way down" the aisle past President Johnson "without saying a word." Johnson "fumed that Kennedy would board the plane without even acknowledging him," Gillon wrote in "The Kennedy Assassination, 24 Hours After."
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President Johnson is seen here meeting with Sens. Mike Mansfield, left, and J. William Fulbright, far right. All presidents aboard Air Force One used it to multitask. For example, at a 1964 campaign stop, LBJ gave an impromptu press conference on the plane while he changed clothes.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
In 1972, SAM 26000 ferried President Richard Nixon to Beijing on a groundbreaking mission to open U.S. relations with the People's Republic of China. The aircraft was welcomed by a 350-man Chinese military honor guard.
National Archive
In 1981, Nixon and fellow ex-presidents Gerald Ford, left, and Jimmy Carter, right, flew SAM 26000 to the funeral of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. (Also attending: former first lady Rosalynn Carter.) They felt "somewhat ill at ease" together, wrote Carter years later. Then Nixon "surprisingly eased the tension," Carter recalled. The men bonded. The trip resulted in a long friendship between bitter election rivals Carter and Ford.
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
Many aviation enthusiasts, aircraft geeks and history buffs see the jet as a national treasure. As Vice President Al Gore put it when he last boarded it in 1998: "If history itself had wings, it probably would be this very aircraft."
