Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, host of the new How Stuff
Speaker 1: Works Now podcast. Every week, I'll be bringing you three
Speaker 1: stories from our team about the weird and wondrous developments
Speaker 1: we've seen in science, technology, and culture. Fresh episodes will
Speaker 1: be out every Monday on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music,
Speaker 1: and everywhere else that fine podcasts are found. Welcome to
Speaker 1: brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, it's
Speaker 1: Christian Sager here. Imagine you're on the streets of Manhattan
Speaker 1: on April two thousand and nine. All of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Air Force one flies overhead, lower to the ground than
Speaker 1: a plane should be, and an F sixteen fighter jet
Speaker 1: is chasing it. Your first thought probably isn't oh, Harrison
Speaker 1: Ford is making a sequel to his classic nine action
Speaker 1: film Air Force One. No, it's probably more like, oh
Speaker 1: my God, New York is under attack, and then you
Speaker 1: evacuate your building. Well, it turns out this actually how
Speaker 1: and it was because the White House wanted to capture
Speaker 1: new souvenir photos of the President's airplane flying over the
Speaker 1: Statue of Liberty. The incident was blamed on miscommunication between
Speaker 1: the White House and New York City Hall, but regardless
Speaker 1: of who is at fault. Let me throw this fact
Speaker 1: that you it costs fifty dollars per second to operate
Speaker 1: air Force one. That's over a hundred and eighty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars per hour. That's the cost for your plane to
Speaker 1: be considered a major symbol of technological prestige. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we were using it for a tourist photo op. Technically,
Speaker 1: air Force one isn't even a single plane. It's actually
Speaker 1: the radio call name for any plane carrying the president
Speaker 1: of the United States. For instance, when Gerald Ford was
Speaker 1: sworn in as president, the plane carrying Richard Nixon home
Speaker 1: was redesignated midflight to s A M to seven zero
Speaker 1: zero zero because there was no longer an acting president
Speaker 1: on board. But for the most part, we've come to
Speaker 1: understand air Force one as one of two Boeing seven
Speaker 1: forty seven's that the president frequently travels in. While presidents
Speaker 1: like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman had official presidential air transport,
Speaker 1: it was John F. Kennedy who first requested a flying
Speaker 1: White House, and his first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, even oversaw
Speaker 1: its blue and white interior design. The Twins seven oh
Speaker 1: seven's that Kennedy Commission served the Office of the President
Speaker 1: until nineteen, when the Air Force replaced them with the
Speaker 1: pair of seven forty seven two hundred bees used today now.
Speaker 1: Even though the New York fly over incident in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine was annoying, it's not the first time the
Speaker 1: aircraft has been used for public relations. Presidents often used
Speaker 1: the vehicle to impress other politicians. They even used to
Speaker 1: have official Air Force one plane cards and candy to
Speaker 1: give to visitors. But despite how much they like to
Speaker 1: show it off, many parts of the plane are off
Speaker 1: limits to visitors for obvious reasons. The Air Force doesn't
Speaker 1: want to reveal too much about the crafts layout. Here's
Speaker 1: what we do know, though. Like other seven forty seven's
Speaker 1: air Force one has three levels, but it is equipped
Speaker 1: to act as a traveling office for the President, their staff, family,
Speaker 1: and the White House Press Corps. Its interior has four
Speaker 1: thousand square feet of floor space that's a thousand, two
Speaker 1: hundred and nineteen meters, and the lowest level is used
Speaker 1: for cargo space, while the top level is mostly comprised
Speaker 1: of the plane's advanced communications equipment. The middle level is
Speaker 1: where the passengers ride This includes the president's living quarters
Speaker 1: and office, as well as an exercise room. There's also
Speaker 1: a conference room that doubles as a dining room, the cockpit,
Speaker 1: a medical suite with an extensive pharmacy office, areas quarters
Speaker 1: for staff, the press area, and two galleys. These hold
Speaker 1: as many as two thousand meals and are capable of
Speaker 1: feeding up to a hundred people at a time, which
Speaker 1: is perfect since the plane can carry up to seventy
Speaker 1: passengers and twenty six crew members. And let me tell you,
Speaker 1: the President's ride is pimped out more than anything Exhibits
Speaker 1: ever worked on. It has four General electric c F
Speaker 1: six eight zero C two B one jet engines that
Speaker 1: give it a top speed between six d thirty and
Speaker 1: seven hundred miles per hour with a full tank of
Speaker 1: fifty three thousand, six hundred and eleven gallons of fuel.
Speaker 1: This means Air Force one can fly halfway around the
Speaker 1: world without even gassing up. Now. Unlike other seven forty sevens,
Speaker 1: this one has retractable stairways and its own baggage loader,
Speaker 1: so it doesn't even require airport facilities. The technology on
Speaker 1: the top level is also pretty amazing. Air Force one
Speaker 1: has numerous onboard telephones, radios, television's computer connections, and fax machines,
Speaker 1: and you can bet the WiFi is better than your
Speaker 1: last commercial flight to All these electronics add up to
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty eight miles of wiring that are
Speaker 1: shielded well enough to protect them from an electromagnetic pulse attack.
Speaker 1: Beyond that, the planes advanced avionics and defenses are classified,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely designed to withstand an air assault, jam
Speaker 1: enemy radar, and eject flares to confuse heat seeking missiles.
Speaker 1: Maybe it even has awesome turrets like the Millennium Falcon.
Speaker 1: Probably not, but could the Millennium Falcon refuel midflight? Air
Speaker 1: Force one can do that. In fact, it can stay
Speaker 1: in the air indefinitely as long as other planes keep
Speaker 1: bringing thousands of gallons of jet fuel to feed it.
Speaker 1: An air Force one isn't the only aircraft to a
Speaker 1: company the president to sea. Five Galaxy planes tag along
Speaker 1: as well, carrying limousines, secret service agents, and a special ambulance. Also,
Speaker 1: an advanced C one four one starlift or cargo carrier
Speaker 1: flies ahead of the President to deliver his or her motorcade.
Speaker 1: All of these vehicles are maintained by the Presidential Airlift Group,
Speaker 1: which classifies every flight as a military mission. All crew
Speaker 1: members are military personnel operating with high security. Even those
Speaker 1: who prepare meals aboard Air Force one have to purchase
Speaker 1: the food undercover from random locations. As awesome as these
Speaker 1: planes are, the current seven forty seven serving the White
Speaker 1: House have been in operations since nineteen and it's about
Speaker 1: time for an upgrade. Maintaining the current vehicles is expensive
Speaker 1: because commercial airlines have already retired their seven two hundred fleets,
Speaker 1: so the Air Force is planning on getting three new
Speaker 1: aircraft delivered for nineteen and one. After a chance to
Speaker 1: bid for contract. Boeing is once again the company commission
Speaker 1: to build the new planes and are considering either a
Speaker 1: seven four, seven eight or a seven eighty seven as
Speaker 1: models for the design. To keep up its reputation as
Speaker 1: a flying base for one of the most powerful people
Speaker 1: in the world, Boeing better come up with something pretty
Speaker 1: swank for Potis to ride around it. Maybe it'll get
Speaker 1: laser turrets. Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube, and
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com.