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Kennth T. Walsh

Author, Speaker, & Journalist

Air Force One:  A History of the Presidents and Their Planes

by Kenneth T. Walsh

 

From FDR’s prop-driven Pan Am to the glimmering blue-and-white jumbo 747 on which George W. Bush travels, the president’s plane has captured the public’s awe and imagination and is recognized around the world as a symbol of American power. In this unique book, Air Force One is revealed as a very special habitat that functions as an invaluable window on each of the presidents who occupy it.

 

Based on interviews with five living presidents, scores of past and present government officials, and staff and crew members of Air Force One, Walsh’s book features countless fascinating and often outrageous stories of life aboard the “flying White House.”

 

 

"Air Force One" book by Kenneth T. Walsh
Air Force One:  A History of the Presidents and Their Planes by Ken Walsh

Hyperion Books

Publish date: May 2004

ISBN: 1401300049

a “marvellous book brimming with unforgettable anecdotes.”

 

AIR FORCE ONE

Reviews

  •        David Gergen

    “For modern presidents, Air Force One has become far more than a magic carpet: It is a symbol of national pride, a central command post, and a personal sanctuary…Walsh captures both the men and their most memorable moments aboard. This is a first-class seat for a whale of a ride.”

     

    –David Gergen

  •        Publishers Weekly

    This peek inside the "flying Oval Office" comes courtesy of U.S. News and World Report's award-winning White House correspondent, who has logged more than 200 trips aboard Air Force One. To document the history and evolution of the "flying White House," Walsh (Feeding the Beast: The White House Versus the Press) interviewed more than 120 people, including the plane's crews and staff, plus past presidents and White House officials. Americans once thought presidents should "never stray from the United States," but FDR "changed the whole dynamic," becoming the first airborne chief executive when he flew to a secret 1943 meeting with Churchill in Casablanca. Truman, who used "the plane itself as a power tool," was the first to fly routinely, and Eisenhower was the first to travel by jet. The code name Air Force One was introduced in Ike's era after air traffic controllers confused Eastern 610 with the president's Air Force 610. JFK made the code name public, and his sleek new 707 "seemed to embody modernity itself" after Jackie Kennedy and industrial designer Raymond Loewy devised the now-familiar blue-and-white exterior. Focusing on the mystique and prestige of Air Force One and its ascendancy as a symbol of world power, Walsh describes key decisions made in the air, leaving a contrail of anecdotes about presidential behavior aloft, and concludes by detailing the dramatic events aboard the presidential jet on September 11 when the controversial decision was made not to return to Washington. 8 pages of color, 8 pages of b&w photos.

     

    by PW. Agent, Jillian Manus.

    (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

     

  •        Library Journal - Joyce M. Cox

  •        Marlin Fitzwater

    “Walsh brings a journalist's eye and a historian's sense of scholarship…Walsh takes you behind the scenes, and into the inner sanctums of power aboard the president's plane. It's a fascinating history.”

     

    –Marlin Fitzwater

     

  •        Kirkus Reviews

  • Published by Hyperion Books

Air Force One:

 A History of the

Presidents and Their Planes

Chapter One

Jonathan V. Last,

(Desktop version)

THE WASHINGTON POST

LIVE ONLINE - TRANSCRIPT

With Kenneth T. Walsh - May 22, 2002

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National

Geographic News

- David Braun Q&A

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Kenneth T. Walsh

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