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14.01.

1943: U.S. President Travels by Plane for the First Time in History

1943: U.S. President Travels by Plane for the First Time in History
Photo Credit To https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314_Clipper#/media/File:Boeing_314_Clipper-cropped.jpg

The airplane with which most of his first presidential trips were carried out was a Boeing 314 Clipper.



On this day the U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt flew to Morocco to attend the famous Allied Casablanca Conference. Historically, that is interesting because that was the first flight of any U.S. president in a plane during the term. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt, American presidents traveled in foreign visits exclusively by ships, and on land they used the older means of transportation – rail, car, and earlier also a carriage or even a riding horse.

President Roosevelt’s trip to Casablanca was a risky mission, because it was in 1943, in the midst of World War II. Therefore, the flight was not directed straight from the United States to Morocco, but a more complex route was planned. Namely, the president first came from Washington to Florida by land, and then flew in a plane to the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, and further to the Brazilian city of Belém. Only from there did he go on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gambia in Africa, and then to Casablanca.

The airplane with which most of this first presidential trip was carried out was a Boeing 314 Clipper. It was actually a seaplane, and is also known for being used by the British Prime Minister Churchill on his journeys. The famous name “Air Force One” for the U.S. presidential plane has been in use only since 1953.

Regarding the aforementioned Casablanca Conference, it is interesting that the popular movie Casablanca was filmed a year before, in 1942, and mass theater projections began on 23 January 1943 i.e. exactly one day before the end of Casablanca Conference. This, of course, was no accident because the film companies wanted to take advantage of the media popularity of the conference to promote the film.




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