INSIDE AIR FORCE ONE

What's on board the US president's personal aeroplane?

- AILSA HARVEY

It's essential to track the whereabouts of any aircraft that takes to the sky. However, when one of the passengers on board is a high-profile government figure such as the President of the United States, the safety and security of the aircraft is taken much more seriously. Equipped with nuclear bomb-resistant materials and technology that can make it invisible to enemies, the president's aircraft is designed to be one of the safest aeroplanes on Earth. This plane is referred to as Air Force One.

Air Force One is not a term that refers to one specific plane, but any aircraft that is carrying the current US president. Even planes that are designed to carry the person at the top of the US government cannot be referred to Air Force One until the president steps on board. The term was first coined in 1953 when the president's aircraft and a commercial airliner had the same flight number and entered the same airspace at the same time. To prevent air-traffic controllers from confusing the president's plane with another aircraft, Air Force One has been used as its designation ever since.

The two current Air Force Ones are Boeing 747-200Bs. These models have been in service as the presidents' jets since 1990, so to stop them becoming too outdated, a new generation of Air Force Ones are under construction. The new model will be the Boeing 747-8. To keep the aircraft secure, many of the details are classified, but its features are expected to remain similar to the current Air Force One planes - providing a high level of luxury and safety on all of the president's future trips.

THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PLANE