“It’s a big artifact,” Underwood said. The Independence carried 24 passengers and had a stateroom.
The Army Air Force christened the plane on July 4, 1947, Independence Day, and it also bore the name of Truman’s hometown in Missouri. In October 1950, Truman flew aboard Independence to Wake Island to meet with Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur about the ongoing Korean war.
“As a result of the meetings, President Truman concluded he needed a new commander,” Underwood said, and MacArthur was out as top military leader in the war. “That’s the big thing it’s known for.”
Crews will add steel plates to beef up floor boards in the VC-118 to withstand heavier wear and tear when the Independence moves to a new 224,000-square foot fourth hangar under construction at the museum. A conservator will clear and repair items inside the plane.
“We’re doing nothing that can’t be undone,” Underwood said. “With an artifact, you don’t do anything that cannot be undone. It’s not good museum practice.”
Today, the plane is housed with other presidential aircraft in a restricted-access hangar at Wright-Patterson open to the public by shuttle bus from the main museum complex. Underwood estimated roughly 100,000 people may tour the Independence in a typical year. When it moves to the main complex, those numbers will rise upward dramatically, he expected.
“When we start looking at potentially a million plus going through it (each year), that’s 10 times the wear and tear,” he said. The plane won’t disappear from public view, it will remain in the presidential gallery during the conservation, he said.
The VC-118 replaced the Douglas VC-54C, the “Sacred Cow,” the first military aircraft specifically built to transport a U.S. president. That plane sits near the Independence in the gallery.
The Independence was pulled from the White House fleet in May 1953 but flew in the Air Force until the early 1960s transporting VIPs, Underwood said.
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