Customer Reviews

Flying White House: The Story of Air Force One

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In the late 1960s and early '70s, now-retired Air Force colonel Ralph Albertazzie was commander and pilot of Air Force One. Jerry terHorst (whose name, as Garry Trudeau once observed, looks like a typo) was a decades-long member of the White House press corps and first press secretary for President Gerald Ford. Between them, they had the skills and experience to produce a serviceable, and entertainingly personal, history of Air Force One. Although the book is now more than a little out of date, it's nevertheless a good overview of the first four decades of presidential air travel.

Most interesting, given Albertazzie's personal insights, are the authors' stories of Henry Kissinger's secret trips to Europe for peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese, his equally clandestine trip to China to prepare for President Nixon's public one in 1972 (Albertazzie piloted both trips), and -- in the chapter that opens the book -- Citizen Nixon's post-resignation flight back home to California.

The Air Force One of today is almost incomprehensibly advanced relative to the one Albertazzie flew. Nevertheless, for readers interested in the accoutrements of presidential power, tracking down a copy of this book is worth a little effort.

A great book with a lot of historical facts.A comprehensive look at the Presidents and their Planes.Would be nice if there was a Part Two with an update post the Carter era.After all, a lot of history has been created in the last 30 years.
Nevertheless a great collector's item for an Aviation History Buff.

As the leading civilian expert on the Secret Service, I modestly recommend this dated and dry book, for it still contains some valuable information pre-Reagan days. I especially liked the info. re: former Secret Swervice agents Behn and Pontius.
Vince Palamara
History Channel, author of two books, in over 32 other author's books, etc.