USAF Museum Series: Part 9

One of my favorite places at the USAF Museum is the Presidential Gallery. Not for the sheer quantity of aircraft as every other hangar has far more, but instead for the history held inside the aluminum (a.k.a. al-ooh-min-ee-um, as I'm writing this from the UK) by millions of rivets. Now that is not to discount the incredible history of all the other aircraft on display. However, it's always a special experience walk where Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy once stood.

You can see much of the gallery here, especially the VC-54C and VC-140B

VC-54C "Sacred Cow" that transported FDR only once before his death

The VC-118 "Independence" entered service in 1947

The airplane was a military version of the Douglas DC-6

The interior is still authentic to the era, including a likeness of Truman himself

A historic aircraft in many ways, this plane carried JFK's body back from Dallas

Being bit crammed into the hangar, it's hard to get a photo of the whole plane

Eight presidents rode aboard SAM 26000, officially designated a VC-137C

From this cockpit our leaders were flown across the globe for over three decades

As always, just a reminder that you can access any of the posts in this series by clicking on the USAF Museum tag in the navigation bar to the right or at the bottom of the posts. I'll post some more photos from the other galleries in the museum the next time I'm unable to fly for a couple weeks.