Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure - Matthew Algeo [82]
But Harry said nothing to Bess.
The plane landed. Bess heard the strange noise.
“Oh, my, what’s happening?” she said.
Harry looked out the window and shouted, “The plane’s falling apart!
The independence was Harry’s second presidential airplane. Its unusual paint scheme was originally designed for American Airlines. Today the plane is on display at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio.
But Bess could always tell when Harry was pulling her leg.
“If that’s all that happens when this thing falls apart,” she said nonchalantly, “then it’s not as bad as I expected.”
The Independence made its most famous presidential flight in October 1950, when it flew Truman to Wake Island for his historic meeting with Douglas MacArthur. In all, Truman flew more than 135,000 miles on sixty-one trips during his presidency.
When Eisenhower took office in 1953, he didn’t want Harry’s hand-me-down airplane. He ordered a new one, a Lockheed Constellation, which he dubbed Columbine II. (The plane he had used as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe had been named Columbine, after the official flower of Mamie Eisenhower’s home state of Colorado.) Later that year, Eisenhower’s plane, which went by the call sign “Air Force 8610,” found itself in the same airspace as Eastern Airlines flight number 8610. The resulting confusion prompted the air force to designate any plane carrying the president “Air Force One.” The named presidential airplane went the way of the named highway.
After they were retired from presidential service, both the Sacred Cow and the Independence continued to be used by high-ranking military and government officials. The Independence, in fact, made a brief cameo as Air Force One. On April 27, 1961, with his regular plane undergoing maintenance, President Kennedy flew the Independence from Washington to New York. On board, Kennedy marveled at the quaint instruments on the wall of the stateroom.
The Sacred Cow was permanently retired in 1961, the Independence four years later. Both planes are now on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson, along with several other presidential airplanes, including the Boeing 707 that flew Kennedy to Dallas on November 22, 1963 (and returned his body to Washington that same day).
The presidential airplanes are stored in a hangar separate from the main museum, so visitors have to take a shuttle bus to see them. My lovely wife and I happened to be visiting in early February, which, based on our experience, is not the peak tourist season in southwestern Ohio. Apart from the driver and a chaperone (it being a military base, after all), we were the only two people on the bus, which was fine with us, because we had the run of the place.
The Sacred Cow and the Independence have been restored to their original appearance inside and out, and you can actually walk through them, though everything inside is walled off with Plexiglas, leaving a narrow passageway that claustrophobics are wise to avoid. (We were told that larger visitors have been known to get stuck.) Seated in the stateroom of the Sacred Cow is a mannequin of FDR in a tuxedo, looking a bit like he’s waiting for somebody to bring him a drink. A replica of his wheelchair is parked near the elevator specially installed for him.
Inside the Independence there’s a mannequin of Harry sitting at a small table in the main compartment, but it’s not a very good likeness. He’s too skinny and his clothes don’t seem to fit. The jacket is too small. If the real Harry saw it, he’d be mortified.