This Day in Aviation History: Presidential Air Travel

With all the advances in aviation and space we’ve had in the relatively short span of human endeavors to break the chains of gravity, it can seem like a long time since we’ve been routinely flying.

But it has been a mere 83 years since the first president of the US traveled by airplane on U.S. official business.  Eight-three years.  A blip in time…at least in the big scheme of things.

According to the HISTORY.com Editors and downloaded today from: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/January-11/fdr-becomes-first-president-to-travel-by-airplane-on-u-s-official-business?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0111-01112026,

“On January 11, 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president to travel on official business by airplane. Crossing the Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat dubbed the Dixie Clipper to a World War II strategy meeting with Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa. With German U-boats taking a heavy toll on American marine traffic in the Atlantic, Roosevelt’s advisors reluctantly agreed to send him via airplane. Roosevelt, at a frail 60 years old, gamely made the arduous 17,000-mile round trip.

“The secret and circuitous journey began on January 11, with the plane stopping several times over four days to refuel and for its passengers to rest. Roosevelt and his entourage left Florida, touched down in the Caribbean, continued down the southern coast of South America to Brazil and then flew across the Atlantic to Gambia. They reached Casablanca on January 14. After a successful meeting with Churchill, as well as some sightseeing and visits to the troops, Roosevelt retraced the route back to the United States, celebrating his 61st birthday somewhere over Haiti.”

Roosevelt cuts his birthday cake, 8,000 feet above Haiti. Pan American pilot Howard Cone is at far right. Courtesy FDR Library

A Boeing 314 “Clipper” in flight. This Boeing 314 (c/n 2081; US civil registration NC18607) was built for the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and served with the UK registration G-AGBZ from 1941 to 1948. It was sold to the General Phoenix Corporation, Baltimore, Maryland (USA), as NC18607 in 1948 and later scrapped.  Courtesy Boeing.

According to Wikipedia, “The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Twelve Clippers were built, nine of which served with Pan Am. It was the first aircraft to carry a sitting American president, when in 1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt flew from Miami to the Casablanca Conference in Morocco, via Trinidad, Brazil, and The Gambia.”