Airliners.net

When the President of the United States is away from Washington DC on non governmental trips (vacations, holidays etc) does the plane remain at the destination airport?

Yes usuallly

I'm no expert, but there is at least one nat geo documentary on youtube, that indicates it does stay at the destination. I would assume , usually a near by military base. It'd have secret service protection. It would be needed to get the President out quick it something happens, for example 9/11

No it stays at the destination airport, they dont ferry it out to another destination

Whatever aircraft is designated AF1 (Air Force 1)will remain with the President. It has too as it functions as a flying White House and set up for emergency contingencies

Support aircraft, such as C5 C17, will position to another field if needed. When flying into Palm Springs, CA. They've gone to March AFB

It is not uncommon IIRC for another VIP plane to be staged nearby to provide a quick getaway in case the VC-25 is disabled. So, there are some reasons why the VC-25 should retreat to a safer location. And if those reasons happen, then they have another aircraft to carry the POTUS.

BobbyPSP wrote:

Whatever aircraft is designated AF1 (Air Force 1)will remain with the President.

Actually it’s not an aircraft designation, whatever USAF aircraft the president is designated as AF1. Regardless of the type or registration. .

Apparently they do both. There are two VC-25s, one being the plane in use and the other as a 'hot' standby at a nearby military location. The actual details will be deliberately obscured from the 'wrong' eyes but there's a reason why this procedure is used. Especially on longhaul international trips.

They need to move the Prez out fast and have comms available instantly. The main jet might (for instance) go to a London airport and the backup to Mildenhall or Fairford.

What callsign did UA used when they flew President Nixon IAD-LAX. He wanted to show he was “normal” AF1 has to follow United incase it had to divert .. as the United DC-10 has limited communication gear onboard

EXEC ONE is the call sign for non-military flights carrying the President, but I can’t say for sure it was used in Nicon’s flight.


GF

I saw one of the VC-25s at JFK in 2011. I have no idea if Obama was in NYC at the time since I was connecting through JFK from FCO to DEN, but I assumed that was the case. I had always thought it would stay wherever POTUS is.

Boof02671 wrote:

No it stays at the destination airport, they dont ferry it out to another destination

On a couple of occasions, when POTUS was in NYC for several days during the UN General Assembly meetings held in September, the VC-25 was ferried to Stewart (SWF), probably parked on the ANG ramp. I imagine it allowed for more security (and less disruption) to do that, rather than leave it parked at JFK for three or four days. When he was ready to depart back to Washington the plane came back (call sign SAM 29000) to pick him up. Since they would usually fly him between JFK and downtown Manhattan in the helicopter, I guess in an emergency they would just fly the choppers to SWF to get out of town quickly.

The VC-25’s are used for various folks. Michelle used to take one separately to Martha’s Vinyard/Hawaii often. Sometimes she’d fly back with Barrack, but her entourage was also enormous (more than twice the staff of Melania).

would the president ever use a Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post and when would he if always tailed by AF1?

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

EXEC ONE is the call sign for non-military flights carrying the President, but I can’t say for sure it was used in Nicon’s flight.

GF

Not sure what the circumstances were for this particular flight, but EXEC ONE was used flying the first lady out of STL on a C-37 several years back.

PC12Fan wrote:

Not sure what the circumstances were for this particular flight, but EXEC ONE was used flying the first lady out of STL on a C-37 several years back.

Flights carrying the First Lady (without POTUS on board) use "Executive 1 Foxtrot". They used that just the other day, when they flew the current FLOTUS to Florida ahead of POTUS, then when they flew her back to DC after the government shut down.

Boof02671 wrote:

No it stays at the destination airport, they dont ferry it out to another destination

I'm very sure that is not correct. It has ferried to another nearby airport before as well (because the original airport was too busy).

texl1649 wrote:

The VC-25’s are used for various folks. Michelle used to take one separately to Martha’s Vinyard/Hawaii often. Sometimes she’d fly back with Barrack, but her entourage was also enormous (more than twice the staff of Melania).

For the most part, no. The FL usually takes one of the C32s(or C37s) when she's traveling without the POTUS.

Michelle took a C32 on that infamous super expensive vacation to South Africa back several years ago.

https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washi ... han-432142

A101 wrote:

would the president ever use a Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post and when would he if always tailed by AF1?

Not likely. The E4 was needed back during the Cold War when the presidential aircraft had far less communication capabilities. Nowadays, you can run a war from SAM 28000/29000 which has greatly diminished the need for the E4s.

777PHX wrote:

Not likely. The E4 was needed back during the Cold War when the presidential aircraft had far less communication capabilities. Nowadays, you can run a war from SAM 28000/29000 which has greatly diminished the need for the E4s.

Your most likely correct as I saw a documentary on Foxtel a couple of months ago which showed the history of AF1 (I wish I recorded it now) must have been quite a recent documentary as ole Trump was in it, well anyway they were show GW Bush and 9/11 and were say that they had quite a bit of problems communicating with various departments, which became a vital lesson

I remember when AF1 came to El Toro. Obviously it would stay but what was interesting that the APU stayed on the whole time. Maybe that is part of the quick escape rules.

To cheap to call for ground services maybe? Probably not. When the POTUS flies anywhere, it is just horrifically expensive. When there is some sort of disaster, the worst thing the POTUS can do is survey the disaster area. Cost the tax payers millions upon millions of tax dollars and impacts the immediate area and relief efforts in an extremely negative way and does absolutely nothing in a positive way towards relief efforts.

A much better use of those millions upon millions of tax dollars would be for th POTUS to stay home and divert the money saved to actual relief effort activities.

Absolutely true, stratclub, now to get the media off the “callous President xxx won’t visit disasters area” meme.

GF

RDUDDJI wrote:

BobbyPSP wrote:

Whatever aircraft is designated AF1 (Air Force 1)will remain with the President.

Actually it’s not an aircraft designation, whatever USAF aircraft the president is designated as AF1. Regardless of the type or registration. .

Really? Isn’t that what I said?

When I was a Sophomore at Stanford, I was there when Chelsea (one year below me...her husband was in my freshman dorm), came for her first day.

The VC-25 flew into Moffit Field. However, President Clinton was then going to give a speech in San Francisco before returning to Washington, D.C., so they ferried the aircraft from Moffit to SFO. The aircraft will always be nearby. If there is some emergency and the President needs to return immediately to Washington, D.C., you can't have the President waiting for his aircraft to arrive from somewhere.

777PHX wrote:

A101 wrote:

would the president ever use a Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post and when would he if always tailed by AF1?

Not likely. The E4 was needed back during the Cold War when the presidential aircraft had far less communication capabilities. Nowadays, you can run a war from SAM 28000/29000 which has greatly diminished the need for the E4s.

Not exactly how I would characterize the E-4B's but not wrong about the VC-25 cababilities (and what their replacements will have). The E4-Bs have so much airframe life in them they'll be around for a long time. Secretary of Defense will fly on them. One is always on the runway ready to take off should a nuke go off some where. One is always down for a massive scrub, maintenance and equipment overhaul and repainting.

I think the E4 is a pretty cool looking airplane. There's a video of a crew member giving a tour of the airplane at Offut AFB on YouTube. Amazing how utilitarian it is on the inside compared to videos I've seen of the VC-25.

Speaking of VC-25 will the "A's" remain in the air force when the "B's" come online? Will they still serve the SAM role or will they be totally retired and removed from service?

RDUDDJI wrote:

BobbyPSP wrote:

Whatever aircraft is designated AF1 (Air Force 1)will remain with the President.

Actually it’s not an aircraft designation, whatever USAF aircraft the president is designated as AF1. Regardless of the type or registration. .

Um, I didn’t infer anything different. But thank you

I believe there may still be scenarios where the potus could end up on a E4B should the shit it the fan. It was once the idea he would be on one well out of range, doing polar circles possibly for days, getting refueled. Now. The current VC-25's
have more comm capability and defensive capability. The next ones the 748's will be all the more capable of a nuclear/chem bio war. Still. I think there are scenarios where he could end up on an E4B, but far less likely. Remember too that besides the current 2 742's, occasionally the potus will ride on a C-32 for runways too short for the VC-25. Obama took one of the 742's into ALB I'm assuming 01/19 which is the longer of the two at 8500ft. Of course the best performance 742 flown by one of the best pilots on the planet would make that possible. Otherwise, ALB flys nothing larger than cargo versions of the 757. Pax planes nothing larger than a321's and the most current 737's. As these once short hoppers have been evolved, a320's and the modern 737's now have transcontinental capabilities. I ve flown a virgin American a320 from JFK-LAX back in 2011. All with what's needed, during my still current vacation I flew last week a 757-300 from DEN-SFO. And a few days ago trying to get home was rebooked to IAD from SFO on a 777-200. Mostly full.

COSPN wrote:

What callsign did UA used when they flew President Nixon IAD-LAX. He wanted to show he was “normal” AF1 has to follow United incase it had to divert .. as the United DC-10 has limited communication gear onboard

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

EXEC ONE is the call sign for non-military flights carrying the President, but I can’t say for sure it was used in Nicon’s flight.

Protocol would have referred to the flight as "Executive One", but the FAA Administrator at the time claimed he was not informed of the President's presence on the airplane until it was taxiing to the Active at Dulles so for a time it might have been contacted by it's UA flight number until the ATC system was notified.

rlwynn wrote:

I remember when AF1 came to El Toro. Obviously it would stay but what was interesting that the APU stayed on the whole time. Maybe that is part of the quick escape rules.

The Airplane remains on Hot Standby when It's away from Joint Base Andrews.