Air Force One: 10 interesting facts you need to know

Here are 10 interesting facts about Air Force One, the American Presidential aircraft.

Air Force One is not just one plane

The term Air Force One is not given to one particular aircraft, rather it is a callsign given to any fixed wing aircraft on which the US President is a passenger.

There are two of them!

There are two aircrafts that fly with each other, one serves as a backup to another.

They are fairly old

The two current presidential planes are almost 30 years old. They started flying under George HW Bush in 1990. Former President Barack Obama ordered two replacement Boeing 747-8 planes that are modern variants of the 747-200B that the current planes are based on.

They are highly customised

Air Force One is practically a flying Oval Office with state-of-the-art technology that enables the POTUS to conduct operations during a flight.

It has two kitchens and a medical operating room

There are two food preparation galleys and an operation theatre with a doctor flying on any given flight.

It can refuel during flight

Just like other military aircrafts and fighter jets, it can refuel from a flying fuel tanker

A bomb shelter in the sky

The 747-200B when flying is designed to be secure in the event of a nuclear blast on the ground.

It can’t seat too many passengers

Despite being a jumbo-jet, it can only carry 70 passengers and a crew of 26. Commercial Boeing 747s can carry at least 300 passengers based on the configuration.

The President has a different entrance

Invited guests and the media are not allowed to use the front entrance or the front section of the plane, which is restricted to the President and the President's family.

There are 85 phone lines

The plane has 85 phone lines and 19 televisions.