Explore
the First
Air Force One
Click each button to
explore a different
part of the plane.
William Borchers is the
lead mechanic on the
project. Click (above) to
watch him talk about his job.
One day, Columbine II,
also known as the first
Air Force One, will be
a flying museum. It
will look just as it did
when President Dwight
Eisenhower rode in it.
But there’s a lot of
work to do before that
happens. That’s because
the plane sat for a long
time, unused, in a desert.
The plane is in a huge Dynamic Aviation hangar in Bridgewater, Virginia.
How huge? See that flag on the wall behind it? It’s three stories tall!
Mr. Borchers says the plane is the length of two school buses.
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Right now, there’s no nose cone on the plane. Mr. Borchers took it off to work on it separately.
The shiny outside of the plane (called the fuselage) is
made of aluminum. Mechanics had to replace only a
few pieces. Most of the panels were in good condition.
President Dwight Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, was the First Lady. She had her own space in the plane. Her lounge included two sinks and a bathroom.
Columbine II
is a Lockheed
Constellation.
That’s the model
of the plane. The
Air Force bought
several of these
planes as well as
this one. The
planes were modified to carry
the President or
other important
officials. They
got strengthened
floors and large
cargo doors.
Columbine II had plenty of space for luggage.
Click to see video
of the cockpit.
The pilots
controlled
the plane
from the
cockpit.
When
mechanics
started
working on
the plane in
2014, they
replaced
miles of
electrical
wiring.
Click here to see
another stateroom
from a few
decades later.
The stateroom is where President Eisenhower conducted business while on
the plane. Mr. Borchers says his desk was decorated with the presidential
seal. President Eisenhower also had a telephone at his desk.
This is
President
Ronald
Reagan
working
in his
stateroom
almost 30
years later.
What if you needed a
place to sleep? During
the day, this room had
seats for eight people.
At night, two bunks folded
down from the ceiling.
The seats turned into
two more bunks.
There were two rooms for sitting and sleeping!
Click to
see video
of the
sleeping
quarters.
Past the sleeping quarters, there’s a
bathroom, luggage space, and the galley.
A galley is a kitchen area. It included a
full stainless steel stove. Borchers says
that’s one of the few pieces of furniture
that he does have. Eventually, it will go
back into the plane.
A similar galley from Columbine III
Photo courtesy of Daniel L. Berek
Click to learn about one of the instruments
used on the plane. It’s
a device you might
associate with ships!
There was another bed in the crew compartment. That area is where crew members could rest or do other work.
A man uses a sextant in a military plane.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives