If approved, the Boeing VC-25A would be on permanent loan to the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum from the U.S. Air Force.
Bush died last November at age 94.
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Reported quoted Jim McGrath, vice president of the foundation, as saying that Bush “loved the plane,” and that he was the first U.S. president to fly in it in 1990.
The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has a Boeing VC-137C SAM 26000, which served as an Air Force One.
The plane exhibited at the 19-acre museum has served eight presidents – Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton.
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“However, the aircraft is most widely known for flying President Kennedy to Dallas, Texas, where he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963 – and it was on this airplane that Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the new president,” the museum noted in 2018. “SAM 26000 then carried Kennedy’s body and President Johnson back to Washington, D.C.”
A presidential foundation wants an Air Force One for permanent exhibit. Meanwhile, the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has an impressive collection of presidential planes. https://t.co/0G6o5q1WCt
— Thomas Gnau (@ThomasGnau) April 10, 2019
The local museum is home to 10 aircraft with ties to former presidents, making it the largest collection of Air Force One planes.
The fleet is managed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, home to Air Force research and logistics efforts.
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