The Flying White House
Presidential airplanes, past and present.
- By Rebecca Maksel
- AirSpaceMag.com, November 06, 2008
NASM SI 89-1834
In January 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to the Casablanca conference in Morocco on board a Boeing 314 Dixie Clipper (similar to the one shown here), marking the first time a sitting president had flown in an airplane. An escort of 36 fighters protected the presidential transport as it made its way toward the wartime meeting. The trip consisted of three legs: the first, covering 1,600 miles, took Roosevelt from Miami, Florida, to Port of Spain, Trinidad. The second leg covered the 1,200 miles to Brazil, and the third leg took the president and his staff 2,500 miles across the Atlantic to Gambia. From there, the group took a C-54 to Casablanca. Other conference attendees traveled less luxuriously: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flew in an unheated B-24 Liberator, sleeping on a mattress in the rear of the bomber.
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Comments (1)
Thanks for the interesting article on presidential planes, well done. It is by accident I learned of President Franklin Roosevelt's trip to the Casablanca Conference by seaplane, and if I have done my homework correctly the first trip by airplane by a sitting president. My uncle was in World War 2 and I was reading a letter he had sent to his parents. He said he was preparing for an inspection and recalled that his previous inspection was by the president. I thought it a bit strange that the president would be inspecting a Navy unit in Brazil. After doing a little research I learned that Roosevelt's plane had landed at Natal on his trip home from the conference and had indeed inspected the VP-74 Squadron. According to squadron members he met with some of the officers following the inspection and talked to them about the war. The few remaining squadron members still take a great deal of pride that they were inspected by President Roosevelt. I found it fascinating that a small piece of American history would become a part of our family history.
Posted by Bill DeArmond on December 28,2008 | 01:50 PM
When I was 18 years old, I had the priviledge of flying in the Sacred Cow as A Civil Air Patrol Cadet. Myself and five other cadets had won a trip to Mexico on the Cadet Exchange program in 1957. We flew from Andrews AFB to Mexico City. We were allowed to sit in the Presidential compartment with its bullet proof picture window and play cards with a deck provided by the sergeant who had been assigned to the plane from the beginning. The cards had the presidential seal on them. I don't recall whether we were shown the elevator, but it was such a pleasure to fly on the plane. You can probably verify my story through CAP records. Glad to hear the plane is now at the Air Force Museum. My CAP Squadron at Gentile AF Depot in Dayton had a small part in the initial fund-raising for the Museum.
By the way, our return from Mexico was on a C-47 flown by Air Force Reserve pilots who had never flown out of a 7,000-foot-high airport. They attempted to take off too soon, and our plane came up, dropped back down on the right wheel, bounced across the runway and hit a landing light with the left wheel, which shattered. We made it back into the air, then proceeded to Brownsville for customs, then on to Maxwell AFB for an overnite. Then we flew to Andrews, where I caught at C-119 to fly back to Wright-Patterson. I'd taken pictures throughout the trip. When we arrive at WPAFB, I snapped a picture of the C-119. An Air Policeman grabbed my camera and rolls of film and exposed them, scolding me for taking pictures in a classified area. Oh well.
Posted by Tom Suitts on May 18,2009 | 06:06 PM