Saturday 12 October 2013

Air Force One

Air Force One is the official air craft for the President of the United States of America.
In other words, the official Presidential Aircraft of the United States used prominently for transporting the president.

The Presidential Air craft came to be known as Air Force One after an incident during which a flight carrying the President Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same sign.
Two Boeing 707's have been used as the Presidential Fleet introduced in the 1960's and 1970's.
Since the 1990's, the Presidential fleet has consisted of two Boeing VC-25A's specically configured, highly customised Boeing 747 -200B series air craft. On 11th of October, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States to travel in an aircraft but Franklin D.Roosevelt was the first president of the to fly in an air plane while in the office.

The first aircraft obtained specifically for presidential travel was a Douglas Dolphin amphibian delivered in 1933, designated as RD-2 by the US Navy.The "Air Force One" is known to be the most sophisticated air craft ever built.
The Air Force One is a militarised version of a Boeing 747 which is about six stories high and longer than the White House! The Air Force One is big enough to hold 70 passengers with 26 crew.

It holds an office for the president and also a conference room so that he can interact with the members of Congress or the other heads of the state during a journey.The Air Force One is handled by the United States Air Force.

But, the most sophisticated air-plane ever built was once threatened.
In 1999, while transporting Bill Clinton from Athens to the United States, a voice over the radio claimed about a bomb being on the plane which will explode in five minutes. This lead the secret services to move the passengers to the front of the plane and the bags to the back of the plane and the voice on the plane was counting back from 5 and ended the message by telling " I hope you all die ". But, nothing happened and the remains of the voice is a secret.

But what many people don't know is that the Air Force One has a twin. 
Yes, you've heard it right.
There are actually two flights with the designation "Air Force One" which are used by the president of the United States to avoid detection.
He is always known to switch flights during journey to avoid trouble.

Air Force One Defences :
1) The Air Force One is equipped with an Anti-Nuclear defence system. It is eqipped with an electro-magnetic skin which will ward off waves from a nuclear attack.
2) Infrared Missile and RADAR jamming system.
3) In air re-fueling.
4) It can deploy flares so that the heat-seeking missiles will be re-directed towards the flares.
5) Air Force One can also call in fighter jets to escort it if the enemy over-powers it.
*The Air Force One defences given here are based on sources in the web.*

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