I feel kind of sheepish not knowing better, but while flying into National Airport earlier this week I photographed what I thought was Air Force One. Turns out it is just an exact replica…and one that is open to the public and will soon be moving to New York City.
Air Force One Replica Moving to New York
Part of the Children’s Democracy Project, the 1:1 replica of the Boeing 747-200 offers not just a look into what the President’s transport looks like, but a look into the history of presidential travel.
It has been in Washington, DC’s National Harbor for the last two years but will travel to New York City this autumn (ironically, by boat) and is intended to be a temporary exhibit at locales across the nation.
In addition to the museum housing artifacts including JFK’s original AF1 chair, inside the aircraft you can experience a mock-up of the forward cabin of Air Force One, including the Presidential Office, Conference Room, and sleeping quarters of the President.
Here are a couple videos I found interesting:
Air Force One replica will give visitors a 90-minute learning experience beginning October. 19th @WTOP @NationalHarbor pic.twitter.com/HLlBPvR4TT
— Melissa Howell (@Mhowell003) October 1, 2018
The Air Force One Experience has arrived here at @NationalHarbor @WTOP ✈️ pic.twitter.com/bT3yuhZ2hz
— Melissa Howell (@Mhowell003) October 1, 2018
Tickets are rather steep at $30/each, but there are discounts if you go in a group. Right now the Washington exhibit is only open to school groups (thanks COVID-19…).
The specifics for New York have not been announced, but I think Air Force One would make a stunning juxtaposition next to Lady Liberty!
CONCLUSION
I love airplanes and I love presidential history. Next time I am in New York, I do intend to check this out.
Have you checked out the Air Force One replica? Was it worthwhile?
image: Children’s Democracy Project
Seems like a waste of a 747. Why not wait for the current one to retire so they can show the actual plane.
As for all of the 747s that are now junk status because the airlines are no longer using them, I have always liked the idea of making them into small hotels or hostels, like that one in Sweden. Very cool.
That mock-up probably isn’t an actual 747, just a life-size model.
The exhibit website FAQ page says it’s an actual 747: https://www.airforceoneexperience.com/faqs
Seems like a waste to move it to NYC during Covid, when it can’t be completely open.
Also, we should thank POTUS for Covid, since his lying and inaction got us to where we are.
Go to the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio,,,,go on board the real AF Ones, from Roosevelt thru Kennedy….
The Air Force one, tug boat pilot “Land Ho!”
as New York harbor comes into view….
Hello To Whom May Concern:
I have a Question Where is the Air Force One is located?
and are they doing any tours? I will love to take My Husband to on a tour
Prepare for total disappointment. This 747 is a gutted out former cargo plane. Its paint on the outside looks good from a far. Get up close and you can tell that detail wasn’t considered. The engines are removed, just the nacelles left. You enter from the rear walking up a step ramp truck (that has NASA placards) Most of the plane has its interior walls removed so you see the aircrafts insulation all over. The displays are poorly cobbled together. There are three “rooms” to view. It is obvious that they’re all built inside the aircraft for the display. (nothing real in here) At the nose just as you’re ready to disembark the aircraft, you get to see the “presidents sleeping quarters”. Painfully obvious that the beds are just plywood platforms with sheets laid over them. There is the tease of the stairwell going upstairs but it is roped off, not available to the public. The public spends more time waiting outside then inside the “exhibit”
Pretty accurate review; I went in January 2019. it was fun to have my photo next to it (when I posted it on facebook i didn’t answer questions as to whether I just met the plane at Andrews AFB or flew on it!). One of my colleagues, an ex-Ambassador, was amused when I told him that there was a lifesized photograph of him with Obama on Air Force One flying to Russia.
It was really conceived as an educational tool of sorts, to bring kids on board and overwhelm them with simulated closeness to power. One of the executives at the exhibition told me that most of the kids who visit had never been on an airplane before (schoolgroups paid a much lower admission than regular visitors). It is unfortunate that the exhibition apparently didn’t work out financially because this could be inspirational for a child to dream of his/her future and imagine themself riding on Air Force One in 2040 (which will hopefully be supersonic by then) as a journalist, as a mechanic, an ambassador or even as POTUS.