air force one

triple7

Well-Known Member
By now we all have heard of the presidents trickery in getting onto airforce one and out of the country on thanksgiving. My question though is does anyone know how air force one files their flight plans? especially in cases like this? do they have a discreet permananent squawk code and permitted to fly whereever, or dotheyfile plans like the "rest of us". one would think that a controller would have see the plan on radar and thought something of it the other day. the fact that very few people knew makes me wonder how they pulled it off. VFR in air force one?
 
Of course it's going to be discreet in situations like the little Iraqi trip. I'm sure the applicable controllers were made aware of the plans... or maybe they didn't even know it was AF1. Who knows...
 
Military flights use the DOD Form 175 to file flight plans. The flight plans are filed with Base Operations and they pass on pertinant information to FSS for filing the flight plan to allow the flight to operate within the National Airspace. Normally VIP codes are part of the Form 175, but since 9-11 we do not list VIP Codes for transmission to FSS.
The form list Call Sign and Aircraft Type. Usually when the President travels the call sign is the Service Provider and the number 1 ie: AirForce 1, Army 1, etc. The call sign belongs to the President Not the aircraft, that is AirForce 1 is not always a B-747, We actaully were listed as Army 2 when we had the VP on our C-12.
In this situation the AF did not list the flight as AF1, for obvious reasons, The controllers were not in the loop, they were just working another Military transport as far as they were concerned.
It is because very few people knew that they were successful in pulling this off. I doubt very much that AF1 operates VFR ever.
 
I wonder where the plane refueled... if it landed or did a mid-air (I doubt the mid-air, though it is capable, right?)
 
C650CPT, Are you by any chance a member of the USMC VIP transport squadron at Andrews AFB? I have a friend in that unit.
 
Though I don't know for sure, I think that Air Force One can fly from the states to Iraq without refueling. I could be wrong though.
 
I don't know if they did it nonstop, but I did hear that the presisent got in one of the planes while the secret service said it was going on a maintenance run. Then that one flew to an undisclosed location, in the U.S., where he boarded another plane for the final trip.
I don't know if this is just a guess as to how he did it since this story came off the news just as the story was breaking.
 
I heard that on sept 11, they were just flying around VFR, and that the controllers were told just to watch to make sure nothing get close to AF. So who knows now they did it.
As for the Iraq trip I think it was really cool thing for the pres to do. Good for the troops, and I think to shows the F***
terrorists that they wont scare us.
 
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Though I don't know for sure, I think that Air Force One can fly from the states to Iraq without refueling. I could be wrong though.

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Yea I would think that Air Force-1 would be able to fly from D.C. to Iraq nonstop. As it is a highly modified B-747.

Also Air Force-1 does have mid air refueling capability.

I alway thought Air Force-1 was a B-747-400. Was recently told it was not. Anyone know the series 747 that AF1 is?

747-100/200?



Everett
 
Air force one does have inflight refueling capabilities. If you look closely on the nose of one of the planes you'll see strange unsual lumps which are for the refueling.

Both the aircraft are called "Boeing VC-25A's", but are actually 747-200's which I believe were delivered in 1988 or 1990.....

AIR FORCE ONE
 
"Airforce One, Marine One, etc.." are merely the call signs for whatever aircraft the president of the United States happens to be on whether it's a C152 or B747 .

I've flown with a current UPS pilot who was one of the 707/747 AF1 pilots for many years. Interesting stories to say the least! The B747's are highly modified -200 models and do have inflight refueling capabilities but rarely used. If the flight is more than 2 hours long, a second B747 is dispatched (shadow flight) as a spare.

UPS has the contract to train the B757 pilots of the 89th air wing.
 
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The B747's are highly modified -200 models and do have inflight refueling capabilities but rarely used.

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Do they practice this regularly though? As I would imagine hooking up the hose, while following a large aircraft would require constant practice to be able to do that!
 
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Air force one does have inflight refueling capabilities. If you look closely on the nose of one of the planes you'll see strange unsual lumps which are for the refueling.

Both the aircraft are called "Boeing VC-25A's", but are actually 747-200's which I believe were delivered in 1988 or 1990...

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Well those things should be getting pretty darn old...the US govt. should get 2 new B-747-400's. Boeings sales of 747's have been dropping off lately so Boeing would practically be givin em away prolly just for the numbers to try to beat Airbus.


Everett
 
Airplanes work on a cycle system - they measure age pretty much solely by the cycles on the aircraft (pressurization, and depressurization) - so considering that these aircraft fly far less regularly then any commercial airliner - they are still considered pretty young.
Also I believe that these 747 took a long time to build as all the modifications invovled - which has probably made it one of the most expensive aircraft around. When it is young, working fine, and expensive to replace (especially with current spending) I think the aircraft work fine!
 
So then do you think that that Air Force-1 is EFIS'd out or do you think that it has the more traditional cockpit that normal 747-200's have?

Also is Air Force-1 a two man crew or 3 man crew?


Matthew
aka Katsuhara
 
I was at Sky Harbor in Phoenix picking up the wife and kids on Tuesday when AF1 landed. We drove by the plane on the way home and I noticed they were using SAM 29000 (the backup) instead of SAM 28000 (primary). I wondered what was "wrong" with 28000. Now I know.

I am no fan of Dubya. (And I voted for him, but never again.) I do have to give him props for the trip to Iraq. It was the right thing to do. In fact I said to my wife last Sunday that if he had any balls and compassion he'd go to Baghdad for Thanksgiving. I'm glad he did it. Good on 'ya, mate!
 
I just wish he took some blankets, pillows and beef jerky for the troops though.
 
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C650CPT, Are you by any chance a member of the USMC VIP transport squadron at Andrews AFB? I have a friend in that unit.

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No, I fly for the Army National Guard, we operate under the Joint Operational Support Airlift Command (JOSAC) based at Scott AFB in St. Louis, where all DoD fixed wing request go throuh and then are assigned to a flying unit. We do flights for any DOD entity, I fly AF, Navy, Marine, CG and Army missions.
 
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