If Air Force One Ever Broke Down, POTUS Should Not Worry

Twinsies.

Let’s start this off with explicitly stating that this is not, by any means, a political post. We don’t want to see “Trump this, Obama that” comments on this article. Please, for the love of everything holy, just keep this aviation related with us. Can you?

For those of you who can look past this, let’s talk about this plane, or rather, planes. We just found this YouTube video while looking up cool Air Force One facts and totally forgot that there are actually two presidential planes and wondered if ever on our page knew that. Well, here you go.

One flight hour of operation costs about $210,877.

In short, if one breaks down, there is a second version of the plane which is identical in every way. Well, except for the tail number. The main Air Force One ‘s tail number is 28000 while the back-up’s is 29000. The term “Air Force One” is applied to both of these planes, but only when the president is flying in it. So, tail number 29000 will be “Air Force One” if the main plane, 28000, is down for repairs.

The reason that it costs so much to operate these 747s is because they’re getting a bit old. They were first introduced in 1987 and since then are meticulously maintained as you’ll see in this video. This sort of repair schedule is hard to keep as the plane’s parts are getting older so the Air Force Materiel Command is now seeking a replacement. Wonder what that’ll be.