Boeing VC-25
presidential transport aircraft by Boeing
The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and commonly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) as Air Force One, the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States.
Only two examples of this aircraft type are in service; they are highly modified Boeing 747-200Bs, designated VC-25A and having tail numbers 28000 and 29000. Although technically the Air Force One designation applies to the aircraft only while the president is on board, the term is commonly used to refer to the VC-25 in general. The two aircraft often operate in conjunction with Marine One helicopters, which ferry the president to airports whenever a vehicle motorcade would be inappropriate.
Two new aircraft, based on the Boeing 747-8I and designated VC-25B, have been ordered by the USAF to replace the aging VC-25As. An additional 747-8I, designated VC-25B Bridge, has been modified to serve as an interim presidential transport pending delivery of the two VC-25Bs. Two more 747-8I aircraft were purchased from Lufthansa for pilot training and for spare parts for the VC-25B once they enter service.
Development
By 1985, the pair of Boeing 707-based VC-137s used as the presidential aircraft had been in service for 23 and 13 years respectively, and the USAF began searching for an eventual replacement. The Request for Proposal issued stated that the aircraft to be selected should have at least three engines and an unrefueled range of at least 6,000 miles (9,700 km). Both Boeing with its 747 and McDonnell Douglas with the DC-10 were in competition to be selected, with the Boeing entry the eventual winner.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q645289. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Boeing VC-25” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.