Thursday, October 28, 2004

New Presidential Aircraft?

Yesterday, President Bush made a campaign stop in Findlay, OH. What I found interesting was when the local news channel showed footage of Air Force One taking off and/or landing at FDY.

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UPDATED: I found a link to the news footage. WTOL carried the story--look for the video link on this page that says "Bush In Findlay" (it's javascript, else I'd link it here).
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FDY does not usually handle heavy aircraft traffic like a B747. But, did my eyes deceive me? Yesterday's Air Force One was not a B747! The aircraft shown on the news only had two engines (one on each wing). And it did not have the "2nd story" hump in the forward fuselage.

I didn't get a good look at it, but I don't think it was a B737 because it didn't appear to have the flat underside of the engine. It if was Boeing, then I would guess that it was a B757 or B767 (I still can't recognize those on sight, and don't think they have any shorter runway requirements than a 747).

Whatever it was, it was light enough to land on a 6500' runway, and from the angle of the news shot, it appeared to be in presidential colors. (Note that the nearest commercial airport to Findlay is TOL, which has a 10600' runway that lands somewhere near 20 DC-8 Heavies nightly, and semi-regularly lands B747's. This is usually where the President flies into, and affords me the opportunity to see Air Force One live as it flies the departure pattern over my house)