Exactly 80 years ago today, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first American head of state to travel on official business by airplane. The 32nd President of the United States flew across the Atlantic for a secret meeting between himself and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
The meeting discussed Allied strategy and the possible opening of a new front in Europe. Joseph Stalin apologized, saying he could not attend as the battle between the Soviets and Germans in Stalingrad required him to remain in the USSR. The meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill resulted in the "Casablanca Declaration," stating that, for the war to end, the Axis powers must surrender unconditionally.
A flight to Morocco because of German submarines
President Roosevelt's advisors did not want him to fly to the meeting. Still, they concluded that the German U-boat operations in the Atlantic made it dangerous for the President to travel to North Africa by ship. At 22:00 on January 9, 1943, the President and his entourage left the White House for Washington, D.C.s Union Station.
From there, they boarded a train for the long ride down to Miami, Florida. On January 11, 1943, at 06:00, the President boarded Pan American Airways "Dixie Clipper" Boeing 314 flying boat for the Atlantic crossing. Over the next several days, the plane stopped in Trinidad and Belém, Brazil, for refueling before flying over the Atlantic Ocean to Bathurst in the West African country of the Gambia.
From the Gambia to Morocco on a Douglas C-54 Skymaster
At the time, the Gambia was a part of the British Empire and not involved in the war. From Bathurst, the President boarded a Douglas C-54 transport plane for the last leg of the journey to Medouina Airport (CAS) in Casablanca. In total, the trip took over 50 hours, covering around 7,000 miles.
Following the President's meetings with Churchill, he boarded the USS Memphis, a United States Navy light cruiser, and sailed south to the Gambia. In Bathurst, the President then took the same trip aboard the Dixie Clipper back to the United States. Roosevelt celebrated his 61sh birthday with a specially prepared cake during the flight home.
A special plane was built to transport the President
The President's experience of flying in a Douglas C-54 over the Western Sahara made a lasting impression. It also prompted the head of the Army Air Force, General Henry "Hap" Arnold, to discuss having a specially fitted-out plane for the President. The result was a Douglas VC-54C Skymaster dubbed the "Sacred Cow.
Roosevelt used the plane to fly to the Yalta Conference on February 4, 1945. At the conference, Roosevelt met again with Churchill and, this time, with Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin. The goal of the meeting was to determine how they would reshape and rebuild a postwar Europe. The aircraft was then used for the next two years by President Harry Truman.
The call sign "Air Force One" was first used in 1953 after a Lockheed Constellation transporting President Eisenhower entered the same airspace as a commercial flight with the same flight number.