VC-137C SAM 26000

SAM 26000
Other name(s)	"Air Force One"
Type	VC-137C (Boeing 707-353B)
Construction number	18461
Manufactured	1962
Serial	62-6000 (tail code "26000")
First flight	August 10, 1962
Owners and operators	United States Air Force
In service	October 9, 1962 - March 24, 1998
Fate	Retired
Preserved at	National Museum of the United States Air Force

SAM 26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States. It used the callsign Air Force One when the President was on board, SAM 26000 otherwise.

A VC-137C with Air Force serial number 62-6000, SAM 26000 was a customized Boeing 707. It entered service in 1962 during the administration of John F. Kennedy and was replaced in Presidential service in 1972 but kept as a backup. The aircraft was finally retired in 1998 and is now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

The aircraft was built at Boeing's Renton plant at a cost of $8 million. Raymond Loewy, working with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, designed the blue and white color scheme featuring the presidential seal that is still used today. The plane served as the primary means of transportation for three presidents: Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon during his first term. 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.

John F. Kennedy was the first president to use SAM 26000. Kennedy first flew on the aircraft on November 10, 1962, to attend the funeral services of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in Hyde Park, New York. SAM 26000 took Kennedy to Berlin ("Ich bin ein Berliner") in June 1963; the month before that, it set a new Washington-Moscow time record. It was designer Raymond Loewy who, at the invitation of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, gave SAM 26000 the now-familiar Air Force One livery of blue, silver, and white.

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