The Air Force had attempted a special presidential livery of their own design: a scheme in red and metallic gold, with the nation's name in block letters. Kennedy felt the aircraft appeared too regal and on advice from his wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, he contacted the French-born American industrial designer Raymond Loewy for help in designing a new livery and interiors for the VC-137 jet.[4] Loewy met with the president, and recorded that his earliest research on the project took him to the National Archives where he looked at the first printed copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, and saw the country's name set widely spaced and in upper case in a typeface called Caslon. He chose to expose the polished aluminum fuselage on the bottom side, and used two blues; a slate-blue associated with the early republic and the presidency, and a more contemporary cyan to represent the present and future. The presidential seal was added to both sides of the fuselage near the nose, a large American flag was painted on the tail, and the sides of the aircraft read UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The result of Loewy's work won immediate praise from the president, the press, and the jet's livery became a global icon. The VC-137 markings were adapted for the larger VC-25 when it entered service in 1989. SAM 26000 was in service from 1962 to 1998, serving Presidents Kennedy to Clinton, but was replaced by another VC-137, Special Air Mission 27000 in 1972. Richard Nixon was the first president to use this, and the aircraft would continue serving every president since, until it too was replaced by two VC-25 aircraft (SAM 28000 and 29000) in 1990. SAM 27000 was decommissioned in 2001 by President George W. Bush, flown to San Bernardino International Airport in California, and later driven in pieces to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley where it was reassembled and is currently on permanent display.
Air Force One has a color scheme of a white body from the mid section up, a light or powder blue base, from the Windows down, and a front face of a deeper carribean blue around the face and sweeping back to a belt along the middle window row. The wings are bare metal silver.
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