By ROBERT F. DORR
MBI Publishing, St. Paul, MN. August 1, 2002 $29.95 To Order: 651 287 5000
Review by Walter J. Boyne
This beautifully bound, photo-loaded portrait of Presidential aircraft shows the sure hand of author Robert F. Dorr, whose unique knowledge of politics, aircraft and aviation lifts Air Force One to the very top. Dorr has spent years studying the subject of presidential aircraft, and he lavishes his learning in fast moving prose that does the unusual-it makes a page-turner out of an airplane book.
Author Dorr kicks the book off with a riveting description of the intricate security procedures required to get the President from his Pennsylvania Avenue White House to his flying White House. The Boeing VC-25A is of course immaculately clean and perfectly prepared for his arrival, but nothing is left to chance as Dorr, intimately familiar with the process, tells us. He provides a complete description of the VC-25, and for the first time, recounts the critical importance of three Gulfstream C-20C aircraft that provide defensive measures to protect Air Force One in flight. Dorr gives insight into these aircraft by means of “informed speculation” for there is no way to obtain official information on these Gulfstreams as their duties are highly classified. The author’s analysis of the C-20C mission is at once fascinating and reassuring.
One of the measures that separates Dorr’s work from that of his competitors is the ease with which he incorporates absolutely accurate information into a flowing narrative that moves you quickly from page to page. He understands aircraft, and knows what to report on them, as when he describes the “almost Air Force One” Boeing C-32A, the Air Force version of the 757. Used primarily for the Vice President, the First Lady, and members of the cabinet and Congress, the two C-32As are a giant step forward over the ancient Boeing C-137s they replace. But, devoted to the facts as he is, Dorr does not mind telling us the Air Force might have been wiser to have purchased the 767 for the role.
Dorr next delves deeply into the history of Presidential aircraft, taking us from former President Teddy Roosevelt’s ride in a Wright B in 1910 through Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s flight in a Ford Tri-Motor to attend the 1932 Democratic convention at which he was nominated.
Dorr also explores through several “almost” Presidential aircraft, including a twin-engine Douglas Dolphin amphibian, a Curtiss YC-30 Condor biplane transport and the Guess Where II , a Consolidated C-87A transport, a version of the B-24 Liberator. While FDR did not fly in any of these aircraft, his wife, Eleanor, did fly in Guess Where II, and Dorr provides a complete accounting of the rather utilitarian C-87A.
The honor of being the first aircraft to carry a sitting President on official business fell to the beautiful Boeing Model 314 Dixie Clipper. In it Roosevelt was flown from the Dinner Key Seaplane Base in Miami on January 11, 1943, en route to the pivotal Casablanca Conference, where both “Unconditional Surrender” and “Round-the Clock Bombing” were announced.
There follows a brilliant accounting of the more familiar Presidential aircraft. One of the most interesting of these is the Douglas C-54 Sacred Cow, which was equipped with an elevator to handle President Roosevelt’s wheel chair. As in every case, Dorr accounts for not only the past of the aircraft, but its present condition and location, in this case the magnificent Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. And Dorr peppers his stories with quick, sharp anecdotes, as when Colonel Ancil Baker, who flew the aircraft in its post-presidential career, reveals that Roosevelt’s elevator was used to “store cheap foreign liquor that we brought home from overseas.”
The author faithfully account for all the Presidential aircraft, including the Independence and the Columbine, as well as the less often covered helicopters that handle the shorter trips.
Air Force One is a truly inspirational book, perfectly suited to these troubled times when patriotism is once again in flower. It is filled with beautiful color and black and white photos of both the brilliant exteriors and the gorgeous interiors of these presidential aircraft, including detail shots of table settings and Presidents at work and play. Dorr even covers the “might-have-been ” Air Force One’s such as the Lockheed L-1011 or the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.
This is the a double-duty book, for you will want one for your library, and it also makes a perfect gift, for it literally sparkles with quality.