KROSWORD

NO. 422

Every spring, Doyle chooses his team members carefully from detailers he has trained and certified over the years. Many of them are senior members of the team that go back to the original restoration project in 2003 while he also brings in rookies who show promise in the meticulous art of paint correction and polishing one-stage paint and brightwork.

“Aquino has earned his place as a part of the finishing team this year,” said Doyle.

Air Force One

For more than a decade, the first presidential jet lived on the open tarmac at the Museum of Flight, exposed to Seattle’s notorious climate. Although it is now on display inside the open-air Aviation Pavilion, it is still exposed to the outside environment, and it shows. Every year when the team comes to work on the plane, the paint shows signs of weathering and dulled brightwork that requires a protective coating to hold it over until the next year.

The historic presidential plane is a specially built Boeing VC-137B Special Air Missions (SAM) 970, delivered in 1959 as the first presidential jet. In 1962, it was replaced by a newer Boeing

VC-137C, but SAM 970 remained in the presidential fleet, ferrying VIPs such as Nikita Khrushchev, and U.S. vice-presidents until June 1996.

Over the past two decades, the “Detail Mafia” has also been restoring five other historic aircraft including the Concorde G-BOAG “Alpha Golf, the last of the supersonic airliners retired in 2003, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “T-Square 54,” the Boeing 727 “Serial No. 001,” and the propeller-driven Lockheed 1049G Super Constellation “Connie,” predecessor of the first jet-powered Air Force One.