Floor Plan

Air Force One has a certain mythic, mysterious quality, largely because it is completely off limits to most of us. Even visiting politicians and journalists aren't allowed in some parts of the plane, and the Air Force is careful to conceal specific details of the craft's layout. A number of official and unofficial sources have published general descriptions of what's inside the plane, but nobody (as far as we know) has said how these pieces fit together.

Here at HowStuffWorks, curiosity got the best of us: We had to connect the dots. This illustration represents our best guess, based on the available information, of how the most famous jetliner in the world is put together.

Click on the image above to see a complete floor plan of Air Force One. It will open in a separate window so you can toggle between the article and the floor plan.

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Like an ordinary Boeing 747, Air Force One has three decks. The lowest deck holds luggage, food and classified equipment. The middle deck holds the bulk of the passengers. The upper deck consists of the cockpit and the communications area.

Passengers can enter through three doors. Two doors, one at the front of the plane and one at the rear, open onto the lower deck, and one door at the front of the plane opens onto the middle deck. Normally, when you see the president in the news getting on and off Air Force One with a wave, he is using the door onto the middle deck and a rolling staircase has been pulled up to the plane. Journalists normally enter through the rear door, where they immediately climb a staircase to the middle deck. Most of the press area looks something like the first class section of an ordinary jetliner, with comfortable, spaced out seats.

The crew generally enters through the lower door at the front of the plane. From here, they can proceed to the cargo area or climb a staircase to the middle deck.

The staff area is in the front section of the plane, on the middle deck. The galley and conference room/dining room are to the right. The conference room is one of the biggest rooms in the plane -- it's almost as wide as the plane. A narrow passageway leads to a work area and the rear passenger compartment.

The president's suite and office is to the left of the entrance, on the middle deck, at the front of the plane. A stairway near the middle deck entrance leads to a landing area on the top deck. The flight crew walks straight from the stairway to the communications room, lounge and cockpit.

Logically, the plane should also have space for the service crew to ride and sleep, and it probably has more press and staff seating than we've shown here. In addition, it may have more office space and rooms for classified electronics. These extra areas could be on both the middle deck and the lower deck.

Along with its unconventional passenger space, Air Force One has a lot of technology that sets it apart from a normal jetliner. In the next section, we'll find out about these special modifications.