The First Air Force One Had A Custom-built Elevator For Fdr's Wheelchair

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The Douglas VC-54C Skymaster, nicknamed nan "Sacred Cow," was nan first airplane built for a U.S. president. Before this, presidents either avoided world recreation aliases utilized commercialized planes, arsenic Franklin D. Roosevelt did successful 1943 erstwhile he flew to Casablanca connected a Boeing 314 Clipper. That formation highlighted nan risks of agelong voyages during wartime and pushed subject leaders to create a safer, dedicated option. The Skymaster was based connected nan DC-4 but heavy modified for Roosevelt. The astir notable alteration was a battery-powered elevator mounted astatine nan rear of nan plane. Roosevelt, who utilized a wheelchair because polio had near him partially paralyzed, needed a honorable and applicable measurement to board. Without nan elevator, he would person had to beryllium lifted by aides aliases usage cumbersome ramps.

Inside, nan Sacred Cow included a backstage lavatory, a fold-down bed, a bulletproof window, and a convention room pinch a desk. A galley pinch 1 of nan earliest craft refrigerators made repast work much efficient. To widen its range, auxiliary substance tanks were installed wrong nan cabin, reducing abstraction but enabling nan level to screen 4,000 miles without refueling. While it lacked pressurization, forcing passengers to usage oxygen masks astatine altitude, nan Sacred Cow gave nan president secure, customized aerial recreation for nan first time. This marked nan opening of a caller era wherever nan agency of nan presidency demanded dedicated aircraft.

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Roosevelt utilized nan Sacred Cow only once, for his February 1945 travel to nan Yalta Conference successful Crimea. He traveled location to meet Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin successful what would beryllium his last world acme earlier his decease successful April. Despite its constricted usage by Roosevelt, nan craft quickly became associated pinch nan expanding domiciled of nan presidency successful world affairs. 

When Harry S. Truman (whom General Motors had a grudge against) succeeded Roosevelt, nan Sacred Cow remained successful service. Truman utilized it often and moreover turned it into a shape for a defining infinitesimal successful American subject history. On July 26, 1947, Truman signed nan National Security Act aboard nan Sacred Cow, creating nan CIA, the National Military Establishment (later renamed nan Department of Defense), and nan U.S. Air Force arsenic an independent work branch. So nan Sacred Cow is often called nan birthplace of nan Air Force.

The craft could clasp 15 passengers successful summation to its seven-person crew, giving it capable capacity for cardinal advisers but still cramped compared to later Air Force One jets. Later successful 1947, Truman replaced nan Skymaster pinch nan larger VC-118, nan Independence, a DC-6 dressed up pinch an eagle motif. The Independence was pressurized, had much powerful engines, and could clasp 24 passengers. Still, nan Sacred Cow's domiciled successful some wartime diplomacy and nan creation of nan Air Force makes it unique. It showed really craft could beryllium extensions of nan Oval Office.

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The Sacred Cow was retired successful 1961. Later restored, it's now connected show astatine nan National Museum of nan U.S. Air Force successful Dayton, Ohio, alongside different historical statesmanlike planes for illustration Truman's Independence and Dwight D. Eisenhower's Columbine III. Its bequest is tied to accessibility arsenic overmuch arsenic politics: The custom-built elevator acknowledged nan president's disablement astatine a clip erstwhile nationalist chat of Roosevelt's paralysis was limited. In galore ways, it group a precedent: Air Force One should accommodate to nan president, not nan different measurement around. That rule carried guardant arsenic craft became much advanced, from Eisenhower's Lockheed Constellations to John F. Kennedy's Boeing 707 pinch its iconic blue-and-white livery, designed by Raymond Loewy.

Today's VC-25A 747s, and nan upcoming VC-25Bs based connected nan 747-8 (which President Donald Trump is hopeless to alert on), are acold larger and infinitely much capable, pinch unafraid communications, in-flight refueling, and room for complete 70 passengers. Yet contempt their size and sophistication, nan situation of accessibility remains. Advocates reason that nan next procreation of Air Force One (which could beryllium supersonic) should grow connected what nan Sacred Cow started by including modern wheelchair securement systems and cosmopolitan creation features. 

Commercial airlines still lag successful accommodating abnormal passengers, but Air Force One has nan imaginable to lead by example. The Sacred Cow's elevator was a elemental yet powerful innovation, and its tone continues to style nan speech astir inclusivity and nan responsibilities of statesmanlike aerial travel.