U.S. Air Force
Airigami X by BTCAP (US)
n/a c/s
Douglas DC-4
Douglas DC-6
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These two aircraft were the first dedicated presidential aircraft to serve with the US Air Force. These aircraft are called VC-54/DC-4 (Sacred Cow) and the VC-118/DC-6 (The Independence). The Sacred Cow was specially built for President F.D. Roosevelt and was designed with an elevator on the bottom so that FDR could be lifted into the fuselage (see black rectangle on rear fuselage) he could go anywhere onboard the aircraft. Sadly, FDR only used the aircraft on one trip, when he went to the Cairo Conference (attending were Chiang Kai-shek (Nationalist China), Winston Churchill (UK), and FDR (US), the Tehran Conference (attending were Joseph Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK), and FDR (US), and the Yalta Conference (attending were Joseph Stalin (USSR), Winston Churchill (UK). All of these conferences the FDR attended with the Sacred Cow was just events along the important conference at Yalta.
After FDR's death, Truman used the Sacred Cow for a short while and onboard this aircraft between Washington, D.C. and Independence, MO where he was scheduled to pick up the VC-118 he signed the The National Security Act of 1947 which founded the U.S. Air Force. Truman used the VC-118 for most of his time in office (operated between 1947-1953) but after President Eisenhower came to office bringing the VC-121 (Columbine II) it was still kept as a backup aircraft until the JFK administration (with major modifications to both the livery and the interior).
Today, both aircraft reside at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, OH.
