Original photo by Ewing Galloway/ Alamy Stock Photo
In October 1910, Theodore Roosevelt soared into the sky, a passenger on a two-person airplane flown above St. Louis’ Kinloch Field. With just three minutes of flight time, Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to fly — what he called the “bulliest experience” he’d ever had — though historians point out that he wasn’t the first sitting president to do so, considering that he had recently left office. Instead, that honor went to his cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt, who became the first president to fly on official business some three decades later.
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It's a factFirst elected to the Oval Office in 1932, Roosevelt held the role for 12 years, winning again in 1936, 1940, and 1944. FDR was the only president to serve four terms; Congress passed the 22nd Amendment in 1947, two years after his death, limiting presidents to two terms.
FDR’s history-making flight in January 1943 was made out of wartime necessity. That month, he attended the famed Casablanca Conference, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to meet with Winston Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco, where the two leaders agreed to demand an unconditional surrender from World War II’s Axis powers. But getting to northern Africa was no easy feat at a time when the heavy presence of German U-boats throughout Atlantic waters created perilous travel for American ships. Reluctantly, Roosevelt's advisers agreed to send the president by plane, keeping the journey so secretive that even the flight crew was surprised to see the president when he boarded.
The Roosevelts weren’t unfamiliar with flying; Franklin had flown before taking office, and First Lady Eleanor had traveled that way many times. But planes hadn’t been considered safe enough to transport presidents until Roosevelt’s 17,000-mile round trip to Morocco aboard the Dixie Clipper (which translated to 50 hours in the air) proved otherwise. While Roosevelt’s first flight as president didn’t have all the comforts of modern Air Force One flights, he still traveled with adequate accommodations, notably slicing into a cake for his 61st birthday in the skies above Haiti.
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Planes carrying the vice president are called ______.
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Planes carrying the vice president are called Air Force Two.
The name “Air Force One” was created by air traffic controllers.
The early days of presidential plane travel weren’t as polished as they are today — take, for example, the near-miss incident that helped create the Air Force One name. In December 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was aboard the Columbine II above New York City. In the sky, air traffic control refers to planes by their tail numbers; in this case, Eisenhower’s aircraft went by the call sign Air Force 8610. But in an unusual coincidence, another plane with the same tail number entered nearby airspace, causing confusion between both planes and air traffic control that almost caused a collision. The incident prompted the FAA to adopt a special designation for the president’s plane: Air Force One. The term is now synonymous with the official aircraft, though it can be used to distinguish any plane a sitting president boards.
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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