Transcription
This July 8th evening, the American president leaves the NATO summit organized in Turkey aboard the mythical Air Force One. On the surface, nothing unusual. However, the aircraft used that day is not the same as the one with which he arrived the day before. 24 hours earlier, he had landed at Ankara airport aboard a brand-new Boeing 747, sporting the colors of the American flag. And supposed to ensure all the president of the United States' foreign travel from now on. How to explain this unforeseen change of aircraft? According to the New York Times, this decision would have been made at the request of the Secret Service, the agency in charge of the American president's security. The reason is that this new aircraft, offered by the Emir of Qatar to Donald Trump, would not yet have all the necessary technologies to guarantee his security on his social network. Donald Trump gives a completely different explanation: "Our new Air Force One was sent instead to Mildenhall base, so that we can present it to our formidable military." A few hours later, on the same British base of Mildenhall, another change of aircraft. Donald Trump this time switches from the old to the new Air Force One to return to the United States. Freshly delivered to the White House, this aircraft was unveiled with great fanfare to the press on July 1st by a Donald Trump particularly: "It's the best plane I've ever built, and you're going to have the privilege of flying it." They did this appreciated for a president that signifies security in all the beautiful and whistles they put in, very complex Air Force One, an emblematic aircraft or rather aircraft. "Air Force One is not just an airplane, it is above all what we call a mission." Tanguy Kemener was an AFP correspondent at the White House and accompanied President Barack Obama on many trips. "The plane is called Air Force One from the moment the president is inside and travels with the plane. So it can be the most well-known plane, which is the Boeing 747, but there are also other planes. Which are smaller and are more adapted to shorter runways." The most famous model is therefore the DC 25, the military version of the Boeing 747. The president has two at his disposal. "I always travel with two planes. There is always the first 747 or the first but vacated 25 and a second spare because it is unthinkable that the president does not travel in a secure plane. Air Force One is a flying fortress bristling with technology. The aircraft is protected over its entire fuselage by electromagnetic shielding and is equipped with numerous protection systems, such as these small iridescent mirrors located at the rear of the engines. These are infrared sensors that allow missiles to be deflected by disrupting their guidance system. It is a military aircraft that is not subject to normal air corridors and that flies much faster, takes off extremely brutally and vertically. In fact, the principle is that they must be in the air as quickly as possible to avoid the moments when it is vulnerable, i.e., the takeoff and landing phases. The aircraft has the ability to be refueled in flight. Air Force One can remain airborne for several days, if necessary. It is an aircraft intended to become a White House in the desert and to allow the president to continue to lead the country. Including, moreover, by addressing the nation. The American president can stay in contact with the ground thanks to 85 telephones and a satellite communication system located in this room, on the upper floor of the aircraft behind the cockpit. Just below is his office, the central room of the presidential suite consisting of a bedroom and a medical cabinet capable of transforming into an operating room if necessary. Close advisors have a lounge at their disposal, adjacent to the meeting room. A second set of lounges is reserved for White House staff and guests accompanying the president on his travels. Finally, his security detail and the journalists who follow him are housed at the rear of the aircraft. When they are not in flight, the president's aircraft are parked on an ultra-secure military base. The aircraft used to transport the president are parked at Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland, which is about ten kilometers northeast of Washington. And as for the two large 747 aircraft, they are parked in a special octagonal hangar. On this base, another aircraft is also carefully guarded and also has the capacity to protect the president. Another model, much less known and even more secure. The E4B, also called the Doomsday Plane, which can be translated as the plane of the apocalypse or the plane of the last judgment. An aircraft that has no windows, which is intended to serve as an airborne Pentagon, in fact, a command post. In case ground installations were annihilated by nuclear war, one can continue to wage a conflict from the air aboard this aircraft. Since its commissioning in 1973, no president has had to use it. Not even Donald Trump, yet the most threatened American president in the history of the United States. Since 2024, he has been the target of three assassination attempts.