Presidential Trivia (Feb. 2 & 3)
Answers will be posted tomorrow!
(1) True or False? Only one First Lady learned to fly an airplane, and she learned because she was friends with Amelia Earhart. Bonus points if you know which First Lady was Earhart’s friend.
(2) Who was the first President to fly on a plane specifically built for presidential use? In other words, when did our modern idea of Air Force One begin?
(3) Who was the first President licensed to operate an airplane? How many Presidents have gotten their pilot’s license?
Eleanor and FDR
1) True, Eleanor Roosevelt
2) It's complicated: FDRs VC-54C “Sacred Cow” was the first purpose built presidential aircraft. Ike's, Columbine II was the first to use the call sign AF-1. The first aircraft ordered and procured specifically to transport the president were three Boeing 707-120 (VC-137A)s, carrying the designations SAM-970, SAM971, and SAM-972. Ike was the first president to fly in one (970) when he flew to Germany. BTW SAM-971 was the aircraft used to fly the captives home from Tehran in 1981.
3) Ike got his private pilots license in 1939. GHW Bush, (1943), and GW Bush, (1970), were both military pilots and flew combat missions.
Bonus) Teddy Roosevelt was the first president to fly in an aircraft going aloft in 1910 with pilot Arch Hoxsey in his Wright type AB biplane.