page_title: Air Force One
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Air Force One / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: Theodore Roosevelt &amp; Archibald Hoxsey in 1910, Kinloch Field in St. Louis, Missouri
context_page_description: Air Force One is the official air traffic control call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used to transport the president. The aircraft are prominent symbols of the American presidency and its power.
  The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the President arose in 1943, when officials of the United States Army Air Forces, the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force, became concerned about using commercial airlines for presidential travel. A C-87 Liberator Express was reconfigured for use as the first dedicated VIP-and-presidential transport aircraft and named Guess Where II, but the Secret Service rejected it because of its safety record. A C-54 Skymaster was then converted for presidential use; dubbed the Sacred Cow, it carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and was used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman.
  The "Air Force One" call sign was created in 1953, after a Lockheed Constellation named Columbine II carrying President Dwight D.
context_section_description: On 11 October 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to fly in an aircraft, an early Wright Flyer from Kinloch Field near St. Louis, Missouri.  He was no longer in office at the time, having been succeeded by William Howard Taft. The record-making occasion was a brief overflight of the crowd at a county fair but was nonetheless the beginning of presidential air travel.
  Before World War II, overseas and cross-country presidential travel was rare.  The lack of wireless telecommunication and available modes of transportation made long-distance travel impractical, as it took too much time and isolated the president from events in Washington, D.C. Railroads were a safer and more reliable option if the president needed to travel to distant states. By the late 1930s, with the arrival of aircraft such as the Douglas DC-3, increasing numbers of the U.S. public saw passenger air travel as a reasonable mode of transportation. All-metal aircraft, more reliable engines, and new radio aids to navigation had made commercial airline travel safer and more convenient. Life insurance companies even began to offer airline pilots insurance policies, albeit at extravagant rates, and many commercial travelers and government officials began using the airlines in preference to rail travel, especially for longer trips.
caption: Theodore Roosevelt and pilot Arch Hoxsey before their flight from St. Louis in October 1910
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