Reagan Library Lands a Plane

A Boeing 707 jet used as Air Force One by five presidents will be retired and donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley next month.

The military’s decision was influenced by the library’s commitment to carefully preserve the plane and its location 50 miles north of Los Angeles, which allows easy access for millions of people, said Air Force Secretary James G. Roche.

The library’s fund-raising arm has promised to pay the costs of getting the aircraft to a hangar to be built next to the library, set on 100 hilltop acres.

Reagan foundation officials also have promised to restore the blue, silver and white fuselage to the way it looked when Reagan was president, down to the bowl of jelly beans, and let the public walk inside.

“We are extremely pleased with the vision set forth by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation,” Roche said.

The transfer is a major coup for Reagan, now 90 and afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, and the 10-year-old library. No other presidential library has acquired such an aircraft.

The jet was the primary Air Force One during Reagan’s two terms and was used by Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush. It was replaced with a larger and more luxurious 747 in 1990. After that, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush used the jet as a backup.

A similar Boeing 707 that carried John F. Kennedy’s body from Dallas to Washington after his assassination is housed in the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, along with other former presidential aircraft.

Reagan foundation officials were ecstatic over acquiring the plane. Foundation officials began inquiring two months ago when they learned that the 30-year-old 707 was scheduled for retirement, director Mark Burson said.

“We have every intention of creating a memorable experience that allows the public to walk through this magnificent aircraft and feel the sense of its awesome history,” Burson said.

A bulletproof limousine used by Reagan will be displayed alongside the jet. The car is on permanent loan from the Secret Service. It is not the limousine that Reagan was pushed into by federal agents after a 1981 assassination attempt, library officials said.

Jerry ter Horst, an Air Force One historian who has written a book on the subject, said the jet’s historical significance makes it priceless.

Nixon flew back to California in it after resigning. Ford tumbled down the last few steps on a visit to Austria. And Reagan flew to a divided Berlin to demand that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall!”

“Air Force One is really a flying White House,” Ter Horst said. “Presidents do a lot of business on board and that makes it a national treasure.”

An immediate challenge will be building a hangar big enough to house the plane, which is 153 feet long and has a wingspan of 146 feet. Library officials said it will be built with private funds.

The jet is expected to be flown to Ventura County at the end of September. It will be stored in a hangar until the library structure is ready, Burson said.

Then the plane will be disassembled, hauled to the library and put back together. Foundation officials have not decided whether visitors will be charged a separate admission to see the plane, Burson said.