Assistant Operations (Asops) of the Air Operations Command (Kaskoopsud) II Colonel Pnb Bambang Sudewo said that the President of the United States (US) Joe Biden was scheduled to arrive at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, Sunday (11/13/2022) night at 19.30 WITA. use Air Force One.
The arrival of Joe Biden in order to attend the G20 Summit in Bali. The number one person in America is reported to have arrived using the blue US Air Force One plane. Why is it blue?
The light blue and white color of Air Force One has not changed since the leadership of President John F Kennedy in 1962. This blue color apparently has nothing to do with security matters or camouflage the color of the sky.
It turned out that the one who had a big influence in determining the color design was his wife, First Lady Jackie Kennedy.
The story is, Jackie asked John to hire a famous French designer, Raymond Loewy, to design Air Force One. Jackie wanted to make sure Air Force One made a good impression on her husband as President of America. Besides, he also didn't want the design to be too military.
Loewy translated the first lady's advice well. Among other things, Jackie asked for an American flag on the tail of the plane and changed the sentence US Air Force to The United States of America.
For the color palette, Loewy chose a simple but attractive design. He knew that Jacky liked the color blue, so that was the color that adorned most of Air Force One in addition to white. Thus, the blue Air Force One used to date is Jackie Kennedy's favorite color.
Well, after Donald Trump was elected president of the US in 2016, he planned to rejuvenate the Air Force One plane because it was considered old, operating since 1990. Not only that, he also made sure there would be a color change.
"This baby blue doesn't suit us. I like the red, white and blue and classic concept, and I think it looks a lot better," he said when it came to Air Force One.
Planned Air Force One color change
A small model of the plane with the new color proposed by Trump is already on display in the Oval Office. The Boeing company has been contracted to manufacture the new generation of Air Force One aircraft in 2018 worth USD 3.9 billion. The plan is for the plane to fly in 2024.
Now considering that the current president has changed to Joe Biden, he could have changed the color design of Air Force One as he wished or returned to the current color. But Biden is said to have not thought about that.
"The president doesn't spend time thinking about the color scheme on Air Force One," White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last January after Biden was voted number one in the US.
From a technological point of view, Air Force One is designed to be very safe to carry the president, especially the new generation.
The aircraft is equipped with state-of-the-art communications, avionics and defense equipment, including protection from electromagnetic pulses and flares from missiles with heat-seeking systems.
This means that Air Force One aircraft can function as a mobile command center in the air in the event of an attack on United States territory. Function is more important than color matters.