Boeing VC-137C SAM 26000

Boeing VC-137C SAM 26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States. The Boeing VC-137C was a military designation for The Boeing 707 airliner. It used the callsign Air Force One when the President was on board, otherwise SAM 26000. The plane served as the primary means of transportation for three presidents: Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon during his first term. Using the aircraft in its backup roll, it also flew Presidents Ford and Carter. For those flights, it was again referred to as “Air Force One”. In 1972, during the Nixon Administration, the plane was replaced by another 707, SAM 27000, although SAM 26000 was kept as a back-up plane until 1998. SAM 26000 took Kennedy to Berlin in June 1963 where he gave his famous “Ice bin ein Berliner” speech. The month before that, it set a new Washington-Moscow time record. Johnson flew in SAM 26000 twice to Vietnam and took tours of Asia in 1968 and 1969. In 1967, Johnson went on a largely unplanned aerial odyssey, making stops in California, Hawaii, Australia, Thailand, South Vietnam, Pakistan, and Italy. The Nixons flew on SAM 26000 to China in 1972, becoming the first American President and First Lady to visit that nation. The aircraft was finally retired in 1998 and is now on display at the National Museum of the United Stated Air Force near Dayton, Ohio.