#dixie clipper

The Dixie Clipper takes off from Port Washington On 28 June 1939, as Europe drifted towards war and diplomacy frayed in the summer heat, a great silver flying boat rose from the waters of Port Washington, New York, and turned east. She was Pan American Airways’ Boeing 314, christened Dixie Clipper. Her destination was Lisbon and this was the first commercial flight across the Atlantic. Her cargo…

Presidential Roosevelts…Firsts in Flight

TODAY IN HISTORY, JANUARY 14, 1943:

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first US President to fly in an aircraft for official business.

FDR was to meet Winston Churchill in Casablanca, Morocco to discuss strategy in WWII. For previous meetings the President and Prime Minister had travelled by warship, but the US military was concerned about heightened U-Boat activity in the…

President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to travel on official state business by airplane on January 14, 1943. Far from the luxury of the modern Air Force One, Roosevelt took a 17,000-mile round trip in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat nicknamed the ‘Dixie Clipper’ across the Atlantic to a meeting with Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle in Morocco. 

The journey to Casablanca took four days to complete with frequent stops for refueling and a chance for Roosevelt to rest. Upon his arrival in North Africa, the leaders set about formulating the Casablanca Declaration, which announced that the Allies would accept nothing but an unconditional surrender from the Axis powers. 

After enduring his first long and uncomfortable flight, President Roosevelt soon became accustomed to flying and being the very first jet-setting president! He is pictured here on a plane later that year.