Photos show how Air Force One has changed through the years

Nicknamed the “flying Oval Office,” Air Force One has long functioned as the president’s flying command center, office, and bedroom.

Since the mid-20th century, US presidents have flown on special planes designated “Air Force One” while carrying out their official duties.

Air Force One is equipped with everything the president might need, including office spaces, two kitchens, sleeping quarters, and a fully functional operating room.

A new Air Force One jet, a Boeing 747-8 donated by the Qatari royal family and accepted by President Donald Trump, could bring a new level of luxury to the presidential plane.

On Friday, the president boarded Air Force One to travel to Alaska for his high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Here’s how the design of Air Force One has changed through the years.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president to travel on a jet aircraft in 1959.

Eisenhower’s Boeing 707 Stratoliner, nicknamed “Queenie,” featured a section for telecommunications, room for 40 passengers, a conference area, and a stateroom, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

John F. Kennedy was the first to use a jet specifically designed for the US president. It had the tail number 26000.

The Boeing 707 included a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen.

Raymond Loewy designed the plane’s blue-and-white exterior.

The plane’s design featured an American flag on the tail and presidential seals on the nose.

After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One.

It marked the first and only time a presidential swearing-in ceremony took place on an airplane.

Johnson met with Cabinet members on the presidential aircraft in 1966 in a small seating area.

The small alcove was decorated with a globe decal on the wall and curtains lining the windows.

In 1972, Richard Nixon was the first president to use the Boeing 707 plane with tail number 27000 as Air Force One.

Nixon stood behind the plane’s bar while meeting with military and civilian leaders en route to Vietnam.

When President Gerald Ford took office after Nixon resigned, seats in the rear cabin were upholstered with striped fabric.

Presidents would occasionally make their way back to the rear cabin to chat with reporters.

Ford’s office, just off the stateroom, also featured striped furniture.

Ford is pictured with Candice Bergen, the first female photographer to shoot a behind-the-scenes story on an American president.

President Jimmy Carter outfitted the press area with blue carpeting.

Carter talked to reporters on his way back from a trip to Europe in 1978.

President Ronald Reagan used 27000 as his primary presidential aircraft.

In 1983, Reagan met with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and the national-security advisor designate Robert McFarlane in a meeting space that featured a magazine rack, teal chair, wood-grain table, and photos of him and the first lady, Nancy Reagan.

Reagan also hung pictures of himself in Air Force One’s rear cabin.

The photos showed Reagan toasting with a champagne glass and waving while boarding Air Force One.

New blue-striped curtains matched the blue carpeting and furniture in another meeting area.

The meeting room also included a television set.

In 1990, George H. W. Bush began using new Boeing 747 planes with tail numbers 28000 and 29000 as Air Force One.

The presidential office was updated with a stately desk, gray carpeting, and leather chairs.

The staff and secretarial area was decorated with neutral whites and grays.

The staff area featured plenty of phones for official business. Air Force One is also known as the “flying Oval Office.”

The new plane’s annex could also be configured for medical use.

The annex is pictured in executive configuration, with seating for meetings.

The new planes featured over 4,000 square feet of space, which President Bill Clinton often used to hold meetings.

Clinton met with a delegation from North and South Dakota in 1997 to address flooding in the area.

In the guest area, Clinton’s Air Force One featured tan chairs and blue carpeting.

Clinton met with members of Congress to discuss nuclear-waste management in 1999.

President George W. Bush flew 27000 one last time in August 2001 before it was retired to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The plane flew 444 missions and logged over 1 million miles, according to the Bush White House.

When the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked on September 11, 2001, the Secret Service kept Bush in the air aboard the new Air Force One.

Bush insisted on returning to Washington, but the Secret Service refused since they were unsure if more attacks were coming.

In a 2016 interview with Politico, Bush’s assistant White House press secretary Gordon Johndroe described Air Force One that day as “the safest and most dangerous place in the world at the exact same time.”

Bush conferred with his chief of staff, Andy Card, in the stateroom, designed by Nancy Reagan.

The president’s suite included a small bed, light-pink couch and carpeting, and a desk with a brown leather chair.

Bush walked down a hallway arm-in-arm with Harriet Miers, the assistant to the president and staff secretary.

The hallway was lined with a beige couch with side tables and lamps on either side.

When President Barack Obama took office in 2009, Air Force One’s conference room had been updated with a TV screen and leather chairs.

The plane has 85 phone lines as well as encryption and scrambling devices to ensure secure communication, CNBC reported.

On the other side of the conference room, a decal that read “Air Force One” was displayed on wood paneling.

Food and drinks are provided by the plane’s galley kitchen.

The plane’s senior staff room featured more phones, a coat closet, and leather chairs.

Obama met with his chief of staff, Jack Lew, his senior advisors David Axelrod and David Plouffe, and former President Bill Clinton in the senior staff room in 2012.

The presidential office furniture was also updated, with mahogany chairs and sofas replacing the gray.

The carpeting was updated to a subtle star pattern, which also appeared in the conference room.

The plane’s guest section was reserved for special visitors like members of Congress.

The chairs featured a subtle polka-dot pattern, and the tables folded down to make more space.

The rear cabin for press looked like a standard commercial airliner.

Journalists can wander the rear cabin freely, but they aren’t allowed to walk forward to speak to the president — the president has to come back to them.

President Donald Trump proposed new paint colors for the exterior of Air Force One in 2019.

As part of the Air Force’s Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program to update Air Force One planes, Trump proposed a red, white, and navy-blue color scheme for the new models.

The Air Force ultimately rejected Trump’s proposed color scheme because it would have been more costly and caused engineering issues.

The darker paint color would have caused overheating issues and been too costly. Instead, President Joe Biden selected a baby-blue color scheme similar to the current model.

The new VC-25B Air Force One planes are expected to be ready by 2027, according to the Air Force. The long-delayed project has already cost Boeing over $2 million due to various manufacturing and supply-chain issues.

In President Joe Biden’s Air Force One, the conference room had the same star carpeting as the plane’s presidential office.

Plain beige carpeting continued down the hallway.

The placard in the conference room was updated to read “Aboard Air Force One” with an image of the iconic aircraft.

Biden took his first overseas trip as president in June 2021, visiting Europe for the G7 summit.

In his second non-consecutive term, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America while flying above it on Air Force One.

Trump signed a proclamation establishing the name change in his Air Force One office in February.

In May, the Trump administration accepted a gifted Boeing 747-8 jet from Qatar that could serve as the new Air Force One.

The luxurious plane previously functioned as a Qatari private business jet. It features a large primary bedroom with loveseats and an en-suite bathroom, guest bedrooms, office space, a dining room, and a salon lounge with plush couches.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a May briefing that the Qatari royal family donated the jumbo jet to the US Air Force and that it was being “retrofitted to the highest standards” to serve as Air Force One. Some estimates have put the cost of upgrading the jet for the office of the president at $1 billion, but the US Air Force secretary said in June it will cost less than $400 million to retrofit.

Trump, who has pressured Boeing to deliver its new Air Force One planes sooner and criticized the project’s “failure” to complete them on time, said he’d be “stupid” to turn down the Qatari plane, worth an estimated $400 million. In July, he said the plane could be ready as soon as February 2026.

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