Inside Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One is an unbelievable look at a Boeing 747 frozen in the 1980s
Published on Dec 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Dec 18, 2025 at 1:58 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
You’ll never ever set foot inside a new Air Force One unless you work for the US President or you work in the media and get credentials, which are hard to get.
But, on the bright side, it is very easy to explore one of the old and decommissioned Air Force Ones.
Anybody can do it.
This, for example, is the plane Ronald Reagan used, and it’s like a time machine.
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Reagan’s plane is a time capsule
TikToker Bill Hemmer gave us a tour of the Boeing 707 that Ronald Reagan used as Air Force One in the 1980s.
And you can tell this is an ’80s plane, because everything looks a bit vintage-y.
To be fair, the comms room doesn’t look that different, but everything else does.
The seats on a modern Air Force One look like they were designed for a luxury hotel or a business center, whereas the seats in Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One look like they belong to a 1980s sitcom.
And while the Air Force One used by the sitting US President still has ‘normal’ wire phones, they at least look vaguely modern, whereas the ones in Reagan’s jet look decidedly – and wonderfully – old.
Ronald Reagan used the Air Force One known as VC-137C SAM 27000, which is now on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
SAM 27000 is based on a Boeing C-137, which was basically a modified Boeing 707.
It served seven presidents in its 22 years of service: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
It was eventually retired in 2001.
There’s a reason why you can actually still have a look inside Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One
Some people think the very fact that there are still Air Force One aircraft in one piece, parked inside a museum, that you can go check out in person, is impressive.
That’s because people know what happens to The Beast, the presidential limo, and so they assume the same fate must befall Air Force One.
The Beast is always destroyed after being decommissioned. Every single time, without fail.
But Air Force One isn’t, which might seem a little strange.
But that’s why this actually makes sense.
The reason why these aircraft aren’t destroyed is surprisingly simple, and it has to do with the way the DHS, Department of Homeland Security, can reuse its technology.
The Beast, the bulletproof limo used by the US President, is a heavily customized vehicle built from scratch.
By contrast, Air Force One is a more standardized aircraft, which means the sensitive systems it uses can be easily stripped and then either upgraded or destroyed individually, without having to crush the whole plane.
