(Image credit: Daan Noske/Anefo)
Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Truman had airplanes at their disposal, but they didn't use them much. Dwight Eisenhower was different. As a military general, he flew on planes often, and made a lot of use of the 1948 Lockheed C-121 Constellation aircraft designated for the president. The plane was named Columbine II. But there was an incident at an airport that showed how confusing it was to use the plane's military tagline, 8610. That's when the use of "Air Force One" came into being. Now any airplane carrying the president is called Air Force One.
(Image credit: Fadamor)
But that first Air Force One was traded for another in 1954, and after various other roles, was abandoned in the desert, where it sat, rusting, until 1970, when Mel Christler bought it for parts. Years later, he found out about the plane's history, and he couldn't scrap it. But he couldn't afford to restore it, either, so the Columbine II sat in great disrepair until 2014. But now it's in the hands of a group trying to restore it for posterity. Read about the travels of the first Air Force One and when we can expect to see it ourselves.