''SAM 27000'' was the second of two Boeing VC-137C
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
aircraft that were specifically configured and maintained for the use of the
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
. It used the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...
Air Force One when the president was on board, and at other times it used the call sign ''SAM 27000'' (spoken as 'SAM two-seven-thousand'), with SAM indicating 'Special Air Mission.' The VC-137C
serial number ''72-7000'' was a customized version of the
Boeing 707 which entered service during the
Nixon administration
Richard Nixon's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment because of the Watergate Scanda ...
in 1972. It served all US presidents until
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
and was retired in 2001. It is now on display at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Operational history
The plane first entered service in 1972 during the administration of Richard Nixon. SAM 27000 replaced the aging
SAM 26000 as the primary means of presidential travel, although SAM 26000 remained as a back-up plane. SAM 27000 served seven presidents in its twenty-nine years of service:
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
,
Gerald Ford,
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
,
Ronald Reagan,
George H. W. Bush,
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, and
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. In 1990, it was replaced as the primary presidential plane by two
Boeing VC-25
The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and commonly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) as ''Air Force One'', the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the p ...
jumbo jets — SAM 28000 and SAM 29000.
Nixon and Ford
![First Lady Betty Ford greets President Gerald Ford for the trip back to Washington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/First_Lady_Betty_Ford_greets_President_Gerald_Ford_for_the_trip_back_to_Washington.jpg)
Nixon was the first president to use this ''Air Force One'', dubbing it and its sister plane, SAM 26000, the "Spirit of '76", having that phrase painted on the nose of the two aircraft, although later removed by President Carter. Although SAM 27000 replaced SAM 26000 as Nixon's primary mode of aerial transportation, he chose to ride SAM 26000 when his family flew with him. Nixon garnered much attention for his frequent flying aboard ''Air Force One'', usually flying to his homes in California and Florida, but also made many trips abroad, such as his trip to China in 1972. Top presidential aides and cabinet secretaries used the plane as well, including
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
. When President Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, he flew to his home in Orange County, California aboard SAM 27000. While flying over
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
en route to their destination, Colonel
Ralph Albertazzie
Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated Aviation call signs, call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircr ...
, the pilot, contacted Kansas City Center and had the aircraft's call sign changed from ''Air Force One'' to SAM 27000 due to Gerald Ford being sworn in.
Gerald Ford used SAM 27000 somewhat frequently, especially for his trips abroad, such as his meeting with Soviet Premier
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...
in Vladivostok in 1974. After experiencing two assassination attempts, Ford returned to the plane to hear his wife
Betty
Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beat ...
quip "Well, how did they treat you in San Francisco?" During the Ford years, there was a growing number of airline hijackings and the threat of terrorism expanded, so both SAM 27000 and 26000 were equipped with defense systems to detect heat-seeking missiles. It was President Ford who first decided that the name of the aircraft itself should be ''Air Force One'', along with the call sign.
Carter and Reagan
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
made some changes to ''Air Force One'' that reflected his personal values. Carter preferred a simpler style of living, something he made apparent on SAM 27000; he even insisted that he and his family carry their own luggage aboard. Carter made regular use of the plane both for domestic use and for use abroad. In 1980, after the
American Hockey Team defeated the Soviet Team, Carter sent SAM 27000 to pick up the team and bring them back to Washington, D.C. for a congratulatory ceremony.
[ Carter's last trip aboard 27000 was actually taken as a former president, when Ronald Reagan sent Carter to Germany on behalf of the American people, to welcome home the 52 American hostages that were held captive in Iran.]
Ronald Reagan was SAM 27000's most frequent flyer, flying longer and farther than all the other presidents who flew on it, traveling more than 675,000 miles aboard it. Reagan used ''Air Force One'' to travel to all parts of the world to pursue his ambitious diplomatic goals, taking three trips to Asia, six to Europe, and twelve trips to foreign places in the Western Hemisphere. Reagan flew to three of his four summit meetings with Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev aboard SAM 27000: Geneva, Reykjavík, and Moscow (one was held in Washington, D.C.) The Reagans' last flight aboard the plane was on January 20, 1989, when the now-former President and First Lady flew back to California.
Missions after replacement
George H. W. Bush was the last president to use SAM 27000 as the primary means of presidential travel, for in 1990 the plane was replaced by two Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets, designated VC-25, although SAM 27000 was kept as a backup plane for Bush during the remainder of his presidency, as well as those of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Former President Richard Nixon died on April 22, 1994, in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. SAM 27000 brought his body to the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County, California
Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...
, four days later. His body was then taken to the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace (now Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is the presidential library and burial site of Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States (1969–1974), and his wife Pat Nixon.
Located in Yorba Linda, California, on land th ...
) to lie in state before a funeral service and burial.
Its last Presidential voyage was August 29, 2001, when it delivered George W. Bush and Laura Bush to TSTC Waco Airport TSTC may mean:
*Texas State Technical College System
Texas State Technical College (TSTC) is a public community college with 10 campuses throughout Texas. TSTC is the State of Texas's only public multicampus technical college, offering associate d ...
en route to their Prairie Chapel Ranch
Prairie Chapel Ranch, nicknamed Bush Ranch, is a 1,583- acre (6.4 km2) ranch in unincorporated McLennan County, Texas, located northwest of Crawford (about from Waco). The property was acquired by George W. Bush in 1999 and was known as ...
.
Reagan Library
SAM 27000 was decommissioned and flown to San Bernardino International Airport
San Bernardino International Airport (, initialism: SBIA) is a public airport two miles (3 km) southeast of the city center of San Bernardino, California, in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The airport covers and has one ...
(formerly Norton Air Force Base
Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a United States Air Force facility east of downtown San Bernardino in San Bernardino County, California.
Overview
For the majority of its operational lifetime, Norton was a logistics depot and heavy-l ...
) in September 2001, where it was presented to the Reagan Foundation. In what was known as Operation Homeward Bound, Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and p ...
, the plane's manufacturer, disassembled the plane and transported it to the library in pieces. After the construction of the foundation of the pavilion itself, the plane was reassembled and restored to museum quality, as well as raised onto pedestals above ground. The pavilion was dedicated on October 24, 2005, by Nancy Reagan, President George W. Bush, and First Lady Laura Bush.
See also
Notes
References
''This article's main source is the following book:''
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vc-137c Sam 27000
Transportation of the president of the United States
Individual aircraft
Presidential aircraft
1990s United States special-purpose aircraft
Equipment of the United States Air Force
Boeing 707