Special Air Mission 28000 arrives in Midland

[SaxMan]

I don't know about active defenses, but Air Force 1 is one of the quietest planes out there. One time, I was playing at Andrews AFB and Air Force 1 was doing touch-and-gos, it was like watching a glider. No 747, or any other passenger jet for that matter, is that quiet.

[gary1954]

*hangs head* the end of an era.

[bluethunder28]

Would you believe the Air Force is already looking at replacing the current planes (747's) used for Air Force One. They want the first plane flying by 2017 and two more to follow...

Remember those "birds" are almost 20 years old now and by 2017, they'll be pushing 28.

[stumac]

We have had Air Force One at LAX where I am lots of times. Everytime it is a circus. When John McCain announced his bid for President (the time before this one), we flew him to make the announcment on our Gulfstream. It was very interesting, we had secret service check the hanger with dogs. I was then spoken to by a very serious gentlemen who first asked my procedure for departing the airplane. After I was done he breifed me on how and when the airplane was going to be departed. No big deal but it was quite interesting.

[stumac]

"Do frogs croak?
I don't remember the generic specs but it does have some.
Even a Gulfstream can have anti missile defenses.
Rich"

When I actually worked for Gulfstream (after Pacific Fighters) most of the military Gulfstreams had the anti-missle defense systems. They were very paticular about who was going into their airplanes.

[bdk]

Air Force One Pilot Calls It Quits

Pilot Who Flew George W. Bush Nearly 2,000 Times, Including On 9/11, To Retire From Air Force

(CBS) Try to guess how many flights President Bush has flown on Air Force One since taking office.

It’s 1,675 - more than 200 flights in each of the last eight years.

And on nearly all of those flights, Col. Mark Tillman, 51, was at the controls of Air Force One.

But now, he’s got just one mission left for George W. Bush - to fly him home to Texas on Tuesday as the former president. The aircraft will be the familiar 747-400 that routinely serves as Air Force One, but that won’t be its radio call-sign on Tuesday afternoon, since Mr. Bush will be out of office. The flight home is a military courtesy to the former commander-in-chief.

“It’ll end the president’s term in office and it’ll also end my tenure at Air Force One,” said Tillman in a radio interview with CBS News.

After flying Mr. Bush to every state in the country but Vermont, and on 49 foreign trips to 75 countries, many of them more than once, Tillman will be ending his 30-year career in the Air Force.

Bush nominated him for promotion to brigadier general, but the Senate Armed Services Committee never took action on it.

So the modest and soft-spoken Tillman will be leaving the military for a pilot’s job in the private sector. He concedes that “nothing will compete” with the experience of piloting Air Force One.

“I’ll have tremendous memories of growing up as a lieutenant and working my way to be President Bush’s pilot,” he said.

Those memories include his most stressful day as the President’s pilot - Sept. 11, 2001.

“9/11 was a challenge for us because we didn’t know what was going on,” said Tillman.

His prime objective that day, as it is every day, was to keep the president safe - even as America was under attack - and there were reports that Air Force One was another of the terrorists’ targets.

"As we were heading over Gainesville with a plane coming at us - assumed to be a hijacked airliner - that’s when we turned and headed out to the Gulf of Mexico to try to regroup and figure out where we could bring the president to keep him safe."

Col. Mark Tillman
Air Force One pilot

Mr. Bush had been visiting an elementary school in Florida when the attacks on America began and he wanted to get back to Washington fast.

“Shortly after we left Sarasota, we got word that there was confusion amongst ourselves as well as the air traffic controllers,” recalls Tillman. “There was an aircraft that they felt was coming towards us."

"In reality, just his transponder was off [and] he hadn’t checked in with the controller right afterwards," Tillman said. "But we kind of made our own scenarios that day where anything that could go wrong would go wrong.”

“As we were heading over Gainesville with a plane coming at us - assumed to be a hijacked airliner - that’s when we turned and headed out to the Gulf of Mexico to try to regroup and figure out where we could bring the president to keep him safe.”

In search of a secure location for the President, Tillman ferried him to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska before getting clearance to return Mr. Bush to the nation’s capital.

Looking back, Tillman said Air Force One was not really a target that day, but “we always treat it as though the president could be a target.”

Tillman was also the pilot who surreptitiously flew Mr. Bush to Iraq on four occasions - including Mr. Bush's first visit on Thanksgiving 2003.

“Originally, there was just a handful of us that knew about it. Myself and my navigator planned the entire mission and then we slowly at the end - the day prior - let everybody know on our crew exactly where we were going to go. Even the flight attendants until the day of - didn’t know where they were going.”

Tillman serves as Commander of PAG - the Presidential Airlift Group, part of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base. Tillman trumpets his group’s “zero-fail mission.”

“Every time the President’s ready to go, we’re ready to go. That’s a result of the best of the best in the United States Air Force and the best of the best maintainers.”

Tillman has high regard for Mr. Bush, saying “he’s definitely a great man” for whom it’s been “truly an honor to fly.”

And he views the 235 personnel assigned to PAG as “kind of the ‘Men in Black’ behind the scenes” scrambling to prevent any mishap from distracting from the president’s message on any given trip.

“Everything on the plane has to be perfect. We have to make sure we present the right image of the United States Air Force while we’re working for the White House.”

But that will soon be over for Col. Tillman. He’ll soon be flying a corporate chief executive officer - instead of the chief executive.

[Pat Carry]

Flying the former president home to Texas in a 747, your tax dollars at work!!!!!

[maxum96]

Ended up with an offer to fly with the Border Patrol in their OH-6 after the President left, but alas I had to leave to get back to Grand Forks.

Too bad you didn't get to take them up on that offer. I'm a former Border Patrol Agent and got to fly in the OH-6's. What a blast it is chasing people around with a turbine powered helicopter while you're dragging the skids through the brush!

[Steve Nelson]

As soon as I heard that W was headed for Midland, I wondered if he'd be paying a visit to Austin Acres.

I saw SAM 28000 here in Battle Creek when Bush Sr. made a campaign stop back in '92. Even got to shake the big man's hand (well, me and several hundred others along the crowd line.) I wasn't there for any real political reason..just thought it would be cool to see the POTUS in person.

She's definately a beautiful bird. I wonder if they'll keep her as a "second tier" exec aircraft when she's replaced with a new AF1. JFK's old 707 wasn't retired to the NMUSAF until just a few years ago.


SN

[The Inspector]

Followup to APG85, yeah and they're looking @ the A-380 nothing like keeping jobs here in America, They've already purchased a EUROCOPTER to replace the Sikorsky as MARINE 1, and it's been less than impressive so far- we gonna replace the new Presidental limo with a stretched Peugeot?

[APG85]

Would you believe the Air Force is already looking at replacing the current planes (747's) used for Air Force One. They want the first plane flying by 2017 and two more to follow...

Remember those "birds" are almost 20 years old now and by 2017, they'll be pushing 28.

Yeah, it's hard to believe. Where has the time gone...?

[tulsaboy]

Neat pics, Gary! Does anyone here think that the Air Force might have Boeing turn the 747-8 into the new AF1? With the stretched top deck and (I think) the stretched fuselage, it would be within the realm of possibility. I also seem to remember that the Boeing engineers looked at making a longer "stretch" 747 by inserting another fuselage plug into the sequence. Would that make the aircraft big enough to compete with the A380 and keep the jobs here in the US? Since 27000 and 28000 are both completely custom jobs that cost a small fortune to complete, it would seem to me that it would not be unreasonable for Boeing to make an essentially one-off type for the Air Force for this project. And I would think company prestige would give them a little extra incentive.

kevin

Last edited by tulsaboy on Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[TAdan]

Cool shots Gary. I saw AF1 take off in Dayton Ohio a few years back, the E-4B "Doomsday" plane took off a few minutes before it. It was really cool to see both.

You should have tried to invite the former president over to join the C.A.F... I bet he has plenty of time for a hobby now.

[Django]

I set the Tivo for a show on AF1 tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing it.

[Silverplate]

I have taken these pictures of Air Force One during visits to Miami over several visits.

Last edited by Silverplate on Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.