17 Lesser Known Facts About Air Force One The Government Won’t Tell You

13Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans and Bush banned broccoli

Former president Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans and always ensured that the plane was well stocked with it. He always kept his jelly beans in a jar at the Oval office. President Bush hated broccoli so much he banned it from the kitchens on AF1 so it wouldn’t be served to him even by mistake. Clinton was known to play jazz music at peak volume because he had hearing issues. 

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14Lyndon Johnson was sworn aboard Air Force one

According to press reporter Frank Cormier, President Lyndon Johnson once gave him and another press reporter an exclusive interview without any clothes on as he had just finished a tiring day of election campaigning. This how Cormier described it, “He shucked off his underwear." Then, as if nothing unusual were going on, the President continued talking to the reporters while "standing buck naked and waving his towel for emphasis." Incidentally, Johnson was also sworn in aboard the plane just after President Kennedy was assassinated. 

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15It has assigned seating for a 100 people

96 people can comfortably travel on board Air Force one at a time. This includes 26 crew. All seats are marked according to white house administration specifications where most of the seats are reserved for press and the secret service. 

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16It can deploy countermeasures in event of attacks

What you saw in the Harrison Ford movie was pretty much true regarding facts about Airforce One. AF1 is equipped with radar-jamming technology or ECM (electronic countermeasures) and it can deploy flares as a countermeasure to heat-seeking missiles.

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17Air Force One won’t have the refueling feature anymore

As reports suggest, President Donald Trump’s seeking to deliver his promise to cut expenditure by $1 billion means that the future Air Force One planes will not have this facility anymore. 

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