The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. ... when he opened the doors of his D.C. hotel to lobbyists, business executives and diplomats.

Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon used an Air Force One plane known as SAM 970. The first jet-powered presidential aircraft featured an office and a safe for the nuclear codes ...

Pricey ticket. According to Kenneth Walsh, author of “Air Force One: A History of Presidents and Their Planes,” the cost to operate presidential aircraft in the 1950s was roughly $348 per hour.

Technically, "Air Force One" is a radio call sign, the designation for any Air Force aircraft with the US president aboard. The small prop plane Lyndon Baines Johnson took from Austin to his Texas ...