Speaker 1: Uh, the Doctor Sky Experience entertaining and informative.
Speaker 2: On the Red Apple podcast network.
Speaker 3: In our number two. Another very special guest he's been
with us before. A the author, historian, I should say,
aviation expert Billionni. The Wall Street Journal describes him, and
he writes with cinematic vividness. He's the author of more
than three dozen nonfiction books as well as a dozen novels. Billionnie,
thanks for joining us on the West coast. How are
you today?
Speaker 4: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Always a pleasure, my friend. You know, I'm looking at
a copy that I printed off of your website here
and it's amazing. Here. Yes, I'm standing here on this
particular forum at the podium saying, wow, all these different
titles here, look at the Sitting Bull, hap Arnold, the
Imperial Japanese Army, Your books that go on about not
only about aviation history, but also about American history and
so many other things. And you've written a couple of novels,
is that correct that you could share with us during
this hour. Tell us more about.
Speaker 4: Your Yeah, I've written a couple of series of westerns
and Western novels, and they're they're available see one of
the series is called The Ballad of a Westering Man.
It's about a man who came came west after the war,
must being the war between the States, and he traveled
across the appellations chasing chasing horizons and chasing sunsets. Met
a girl in Kentucky and was about to settle down.
She worked in a in a an orphanage. The man
who had been at war was now with the woman
who took care of the orphans that were left behind
by that war. And but alas there was a great
fire and many of the children died, and his girlfriend died,
and he was blamed for it. And then he became
a western man, traveling west into Colorado and wyoming up
in the Montana. And that's where the series starts. He's
in Montana trying to cross That's more than you wanted
to know about my Westerns.
Speaker 3: Yes, I will, and we would love you here on
this radio show because it's amazing. Bill YENNI, that's Bill
y E n n E dot com. You will be
most impressed if you're a lover of books, like a
gentleman that I know out in radio land named Tim.
He of course gathers books like he was a vacuum
pulling up all that information. But the reason we have
you here this morning, with total respect to you as
an author, I wanted to shift over to American exceptionalism,
a time in American history that maybe young people had
no idea about. And there seems to be a lot
billionaire of activity, you know, going and saluting America's steam
locomotives of the past, these incredible machines, one of them
that's running around the country, and maybe the listeners of
this vast audience had seen it come down into Philadelphia,
traveling across the country and making its way back to Wyoming,
the Union Pacific Big Boy, one of the most amazing
locomotives ever built. Describe this to the audience, And why
is that period of history, since you write about it
so important to this audience about American exceptionalism.
Speaker 4: Well, it's and I have in the past. If you
read down on my list of books written, quite a
few books on American railroad just as well as American
aviation history. But why were these uh, these locomotives. Is
steam locomotives important? Why were they exceptional and why were
they so unique to the United States, Well, the United
States is a country, and we just celebrated two hundred
and fiftieth anniversary. And in those fifty years, we we
we sent our civilization to span a continent and there
are three hundred million people who are descendants of that
effort and to and to span that continent, transportation was
a key thing, and the and the railroads were an
important part of that. If you look at the railroad
maps of Europe from the nineteenth century and compare those
to the United States, in the early nineteenth century, there
was the beginnings of the very comprehensive network of rail
lines in Europe and just a trickle of rail lines
in the United States. By the end of that century,
the comprehensive rail network in the United States dwarfed not
only Europe but the entire world. And running on those
on those long distance lines thousands and thousands of miles
across the country, distances unimaginable in Europe. Incredibly, were the
great steam locomotives, and they were in Speaking of American exceptionalism,
you know, you can't really talk about American exceptionalism without
talking about entrepreneurs and out of the out of this
this turning expanding civilization, the three important companies merged. We
call them the Big Three of steam locomotives. There was
the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio eighteen seventy seven.
There was the Elkell Company, the American Locomotive Company of Schenectady,
New York, which actually didn't get it start until nineteen
oh one, but it stood on the shoulders of many
smaller companies. And then the biggest of the Big three
was the Baldwood Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, and it was
the It became the world's largest manufacturer of locomotives, produced
over seventy thousand through the years. But going back to Elco,
they were the creators of the Big Boy.
Speaker 3: Yes, an amazing machine.
Speaker 4: Yes. And this amazing machine came in the twentieth century.
It was built for the Union Pacific, which has hadlines
across the entire country and had to cross the Rocky mountains,
and it needed a great deal of power. So the
Big Boy was produced for Union Pacific by Alco and Schenectady.
They were built and in the nineteen forties served only
until nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 3: In short time a third time.
Speaker 4: There were twenty five of these things built. They were round.
There are eighty five feet long. They weighed one point
two million pounds.
Speaker 3: Wow, what a beast.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they had the motive power to get those long
freight trains across the Rocky mountains.
Speaker 3: You bring up some good points, Bill. This is interesting
because I'm looking at this on the internet as many people,
but folks to you and the audience of the Doctor's
Guy experience, how many of you out there? And that
changes the subject just slightly. Railroad enthusiasts. We look at
the model trains. When I was little, we had the
Line L trains, we had h O, then we went
to Engage, And I wonder it's a select audience out
there that probably, Bill, I'm sure, like yourself, has so
much fascination by model trains. But you know, I saw
the Big Boy when it was out here in Arizona.
And this is what I'm asking the audience out there
of the Doctor's Guy. Did you have an opportunity Folks
in the East Coast, if you're listening, of course, and
all over the country, this particular locomotive when you see it,
it's not only amazing, it's just so amazing about pride
in America. As you're describing, Bill Junnie, this is amazing.
I mean, those boilers. Imagine how much coal. I guess
in the old days you had to shovel into that
little area in the firebox. And then I understand the
big tender was not a tender of coal or was
it also oil to kept these monsters?
Speaker 4: By the twentieth century, oil had replaced coal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing. And maybe the environmentalists don't like it because
this thing's blowing around a lot of smoke, but you
can't miss it. And I just wonder if you have
comments on this. We're going to segue to a couple
of subjects that Bill Junnie has expertise in. The contact
number to get in our theater of the mind is
one eight hundred eight four or eight nine two to
two two. Of course, discussing with a man who's written
so many books, how many books would you say right now?
And you're counting that you've actually produced so far. I mean,
I'm looking at a stack here that's bigger than you'd
see in many bookstores. But you have so many titles.
How many books have you have you produced so far?
Speaker 4: Oh, there's been a lot. I like, I like to
say I've written more than more than three on deviation
and historical topics, but it's probably twice that.
Speaker 3: Amazing or no, it's an incredible story. But to put
this in perspective, this big boy locomotive right now, if
you go to the Union Pacific website, if I'm correct
on this and people can fact check it, that it's
heading back to the West and will eventually at the
end of July be back to its home base that's
up in Wyoming, one of their headquarter locations. I believe
it's now at least today. It was in Altoona, Pennsylvania,
in the most amazing area for railroad fans called the
Horseshoe Curve, and I've seen it a long time ago.
So if you're listening out there in Pennsylvania, just check
that website out or if you've seen it, give us
a call describe this beast to us. Because again focusing
in this little segment with Bill yenni American exceptionalism. How
we built these incredible machines well before the days of
diesel and well, as you know from many sci fi
particular television shows of the past, as powerful as a locomotive.
But that went to who right, Bill Superman, So there you.
Speaker 4: Are, And yeah, it's also a testament to American exceptionalism
that they got this the thing that was retired in
nineteen fifty nine and restored it completely the full working
condition that was done in twenty nineteen for the one
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Transcottinental Railroad, which is
another story that certainly drips of the American exceptionalism.
Speaker 3: Bill, I got a question, is there factor fiction behind
the golden spike? I mean literally, if somebody knew where
it was, if it was twenty four carrot gold, they
would have won tried to pull it out of the rail.
Is that just? I mean, they obviously did meet, but
was that really not a golden spike? And I want
to sound foolish to the audience. What was it a fact?
Similon or just who knows?
Speaker 4: It was a golden spike?
Speaker 3: And they and they spray painted grow.
Speaker 4: They drove, well, it was you know, eighteen sixty nine.
Spray paint was really hard to find.
Speaker 3: Jack kidding.
Speaker 4: No, it was gold because it had been it had
been made in California, because the meeting Promontory Utah of
the of the rails included the Central Pacific Building east
from California and the Union Pacific Building west from Omaha.
And they finally met, and when they mapped the they
finished it off by with a ceremonial golden spike and
piles of dignitaries from both both ends of the country.
There they watched all of this, and they pounded the
golden spike and they had a photo op, and then
they pulled the spike and it was it was preserved
for posterity. It is.
Speaker 3: We appreciate your answer on that. I never knew that,
and I'm sure how many listeners did not. Eight nine
two takes us into the theater of the mind with you,
our guests out there around the nation, around the world,
if you're just joining us. Bill Jennie, author, historian and
book producer, of course, the author of more than three
dozen nonfiction books as well as a dozen novels. And
a quote again from the Wall Street Journal, and I
quote Bill Jennie writes with a cinematic vividness his books.
Of course, Bill Yennie dot com. Bill, before we change
on this, and I wanted to do this because you're
a primary expertise. It's all over the board here with history,
American history and so much. Let's segue if we can
right now to talk a little bit about this big
air show that's coming up here to many people who
are in the aviation world, and that's oshkosh, what can
you tell us about it? Because I know it's coming
up next weekend.
Speaker 4: I guess well. It is a it's a America's biggest
airshel it's a fly in of pilot pilots, military pilots,
commercial pilots. It's war birds, it's experimental aircraft. It's the
place to go to to scratch your aviation itch.
Speaker 3: Yes, and it's a great itch to have because look
at the amazing stories that we get from Chuck Yeager
and all the great aviators as we talk about the
female aviators to so many stories, and we've had many
guests on here talking, including yourself, about the stories of
American exceptionalism in the world of aviation. But Bill, this
is amazing. Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I was just going to say, go to our
Scotch and you'll meet you'll meet amazing aviators that you
maybe you'd never heard of, But once you have met
them and you know them, you'll find references to them
all over this thing called the Internet, and you you
will expand your your your pool of knowledge and your
pool of exciting things to be interested in. Expand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, our family, our family has a website that I
want to promote out here for people who are in
the aviation world, photo recon dot net. And I think
you know about that, and I think it does a
very good job. That's my brother and his photo team.
So in other words, this big air show, I'm sure
they're going to be there, but it's a special group
of people. I mean, they get really excited about this,
including the days of the Great Reno air races that
we've covered so many times. And I'm sure you've been
there more than you can count the fingers on your hand, right,
amazing air shows.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know Oscas is coming, and it's
not It's not an event for other people, it's an
event for you. So I would say, if you're planning
the Motor West, as they say in the song, or
Motor East, yes, put ostash on your road trip plans for.
Speaker 3: This summer billionning before we go to this break in
a moment, I just want to ask you personal side
of the personal question. If you'd like to answer it.
Of all the people you've interviewed from the aviation world,
who tops the charts is the most fascinating person that
you've ever spent time with. And I'd love the audience
to hear this, because so many of the greats and aviation,
many of them have passed on. Who might you say,
might that have been?
Speaker 4: Well, it's I spent a lot of time with with
General Curtis LeMay, but I've talked to a lot of people,
maybe people that you've never heard of, like Harry Gahm
at Douglas Aircraft, Eric Simonson who was with North Americans.
Speaker 3: I know Eric very well. Yes, Eric Simon's another great
author too.
Speaker 4: Yes he is. And I would say knowing him has
been a real treat. And I think we know we
we probably know a lot of people, have a lot
of people in common. I know that you know Nick.
Speaker 3: Veronico absolutely, and Nick was instrumental in getting us to
fly the Sophia the seven forty seven sp many times
on those twelve to thirteen hour flights that we went
up on, and just the audience knows what we're talking about.
NASA had acquired, as you know, Bill a pan AM
seven forty seven SP one of the shorter versions as
we call it, fuselage lengthwise and maybe even wingwise. You
know more about it. And they converted it NASA with
a German organization into SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy,
and we would fly on that and Nick Veronica was
instrumental to get us on there. What is it? It's
one hundred inch telescope that ladies and gentlemen you could
see above when we were at forty eight forty nine
thousand feet. It was above most of the atmospheric moisture
and it was actually observing for hours and that was
incredible Bill, just to be part of that. But I
now it's retired down in Tucson now an interesting thing.
But we have Nick Veronico to thank for that.
Speaker 4: So those are some highlights by by career people that
I got to go. You know, and I know and
but others may not know. But there, Well, this is okay,
this is the point of me scolding you to your listeners,
do get theirselves over to Ashkosh. Yes, how are you
going to meet those people unless you go where they are.
Speaker 3: And you better believe it's a big deal gathering.
Speaker 4: They gather in droves of Arshkosh. So if you're interested
in meeting great people in in aviation, that's the place
to go.
Speaker 3: You got it, Bill, Oshkosh one of the best air
shows and right you say, the most prolific one talking
about aviation from all different angles, all different aircraft. If
you want to meet people, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. But hopefully you
can get a hotel room. But Bill, before we go
to the break, I always segue to what's visible part
of the astronomy side of the equation here in the
Doctor Sky experience for people that want to know and
they do about what we can see in the nighttime sky.
So if your skies are clear, take a look in
the northwest sky. You can't miss Venus. It's incredible, the
brightest object that's in the sky other than the Sun
and the moon. And if you look at that planet
just at the lower right, it was actually closer the
other day. We call it a special conjunction, the bright
star Regulus in Leo the Lion. These two objects Venus
the planet and the star seventy seven light years away.
We're extremely close in the sky by less than a
degree in the heavens. But the best is yet to
come because this month opens up. I always mention as
we move toward the New Moon that happens on the fourteenth,
when the sky is dark. The moon is not visible,
of course, thus the new Moon. If you live in
an area that you're listening to the Doctor sky experience,
that's out in a way from a good percentage of
city lights. And even if you are, there's still things
to see, like the Venus Conjunction. The majesty of the
summer Milky Way is going to be on tap. It's
amazing right around eleven PM if you look due south,
and many people that run vacation during the summer, of course,
take a look with the naked eye in a clear,
unobstructed view of the horizon, you ladies and gentlemen will
be treated to seeing a sight of the Milky Way
at its core. This is the region of Scorpius, the
Scorpion and the majestic constellation Sagittarius. This is laden right
Pill with star clouds that are just overpowering binoculars. I
guarantee you right Pill people will say, oh wow, I
can't believe that we're seeing that. Because twenty seven thousand
light years into that big bunch of stars, and that
mist is the biggest location for the Galaxy Center. And
in that center, ladies and gentlemen, there's a super massive
black hole. Luckily we're not there because it eats stars
for breakfast, like we might be going in just a
moment to the snack bar. On the Doctor Sky Experience,
we want to convert the next half hour of this
two hour show to a conversation with you about Air
Force one, the history of what you know about it,
the changes that have happened here, and I'm sure many
people may have questions about this particular aircraft that now
is the replacement temporarily for Air Force One, and exactly what,
in your opinion, might have happened with the President of
the United States when he was over in Turkey for
a summit with NATO and why he changed planes. There's
many stories out there. We don't want to speculate, but
we want to get into the meet in the heart
of Air Force one, one of the most iconic aircraft
in the world. Here on the Doctor Sky Experience. We'll
be right back with our special guest Bill Jenni and
your questions to put you to the front of the
Theater of the Mind one eight hundred eight four to
eight nine two two two. Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1: The Doctor Sky Experience entertaining and informative.
Speaker 2: On the Red Apple podcast Network.
Speaker 1: The Sky Experience is on the air seventy seven WABC.
Speaker 2: Now Here's Doctor Sky.
Speaker 5: My name is Richard Graham. I retired Colonel flew the
SR seventy one for eight years. Book I wrote on
flying the SR seventy one is available. I think you'll
enjoy it. Makes it through a complete mission from start
to finish. I enjoyed talking with Steve Gates, and I
look forward to the next time we can talk more
about the SR seventy one Blackbird. You're listening to the
Doctor Sky Show right now.
Speaker 3: Air Force one is operated by a specially selected twenty
six member military crew from the eighty ninth Air Left
Wing based at Joint Pace Andrews in Maryland. We continue
with our special guest, Bill Yennie, author, historian and book producer,
a man with vast knowledge not only in the aviation world,
but in so much about American history and as from
time to time, you know, proudly we talk about American exceptionalism.
Talk to us share knowledge about America's iconic aircraft, air
Force one, some of its history as we move on
to current times today.
Speaker 4: Well, the first thing they should say is that air
Force one is not an airplane. It is a call
sign of any airplane. But the President of the United
States is a board and the airplanes are. They have
been oh a half dozen designated airplanes going back to
nineteen forty three that have been presidential aircraft. The call
sign air Force one was you know, it's like a
flight number. You know, I'm flying that Phoenix tomorrow on
you United twelve forty eight. You know, it's it's a
flight number. And this whole thing started in the site.
The signing of of the air Force one flight number
originated in nineteen fifty four after ten years of various aircraft,
and it was it was happened when President Eisenhower was
was flying somewhere and air traffic control got confused because
they were at that up to that time, they used
various call signs for the for the presidential mission that
they didn't highlight the fact that this is the president.
So that's that's been a confusion, which well, I don't
know that it endangered Eisenhower, but it was definitely something
that where he wasn't allowed to land or or transit
to the particular that of airspace. They initiated Air Force one.
Air Force one is the president's airplane, no matter what
it is. But there's been a lot of air Force,
a lot of presidential airplanes. The original one was in
DC four designated VC fifty four back in during Roosevelt's administration.
He made only a couple of flights on it, and
there were women. When Truman became president, they used a
They continue to use the VC fifty four douglass VC
fifty four for a couple of years. Then they upgraded
to a DC six, designated that as VC one eighteen,
and this was in nineteen forty seven. He named it Independence,
after his hometown in Missouri. He flew that Eisenhower came
into office and he had used a he had used
a one one luckeyed Constellation when he was ahead of NATO.
Speaker 3: And I've seen that plane, right, I've seen that plane Columbine,
which is beautiful.
Speaker 4: Ya. That was Columbine one. And then when he was
as president he used two two Columbines of Columbine two,
which was one twenty one A and in Columbine three,
which is one twenty one E. The name Columbine is
came from being the state flower of Colorado, which was
his wife's home state. So that that and then late
in his in his presidency, they decided that he deserved
jet and this was the the advent of the seven
O seven as the America's leading jet airliner in the
late fifties. So they got a similar design almost identical
to the seven seven and designated it as VC one
thirty seven, and the VC one thirty seven's remained in
service for decades and the one that brought Kennedy to
Dallas and Brian back to Washington is one.
Speaker 3: Of the build Yeah, that's very interesting because people may
not as well people have seen this if they're a
little older in years, but for the young audience out there,
this was the aircraft at the time with the tragic
day in November obviously the day of Kent President Kennedy's
assassination November twenty second. In the back of that airplane,
there you see a kind of haphazard swearing in as
many people have reported to the new President, Lyndon Johnson,
and it's so sad because we see pictures and I've
read so much and I'm sure you know more about it.
Poor Jackie Kennedy standing there in her you know, in
her dress and her suit and blood stained, and she's
standing there totally, you know, mesmerized. Of course, who wouldn't be.
This is horrible And apparently a quick swearing in and
then a whole controversy exists, a whole nother show and
a whole other subject about trying to get the president's
casket on board the airplane. And you probably know a
lot more about that. I mean, a moment in history
that many people may not even know about. It was
not a smooth affair by any means correct, well, a.
Speaker 4: Lot of it, a lot of missions gone by the
Air Force and not gone smoothly. But they work at
it and they make it happen. And they did that
with this, and that was sort of the early days
of the VC one thirty seven Air Force ones. And
they continue to serve Sir Johnson and Nixon, carter Ford,
Reagan wasn't until it wasn't until George Bush, the first
that they upgraded to the seven forty seven two hundreds.
Speaker 3: The beginning of the seven forty seven, four, eight, nine,
two two too. If you have questions regarding this subject.
Billionnie of course, author, historian, book producer, a man that
has so many titles and so much information to share
with us. But the story continues. This is amazing as
we move into the seven forty seven right now era.
You described to me off off air a while ago
that you had ridden in one of these airplanes, but
not air Force won by any means, means what did
you do? What aircraft was it, and what were you doing?
Speaker 4: If you can share that, well, there's a all those
years that the VC one thirty seven's were flying, they
had a fleet of them, just as now they have
a fleet of VC twenty five a's and whatever. When
the president is on is has the Air Force one designation,
and so there were a fleet of these things. And
this goes back to the nineteen seventies when I was
in the early eighties, when I I was doing paintings
for the US Air Force Art Collection.
Speaker 3: That's number wow, another part of your talent there you go.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And so they worked with the societies of illustrators
in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and we
produced the paintings, and then we were flown to Washington
every year for a presentation which took place at the
Officers Club at Andrew's Air Force Base, and they would
send an airplane to pick us up. They would stop
in San Francisco, flight to La, load up a bunch
of artists, and flym to Washington to get into Toxedos
and present their paintings to the Secretary of the Air
Force and Chase of Staff and the whole room full
of dignitaries. And usually they sent a C one forty
one airlifter and starlifter and and you know, which is
a just a routine airplane with a transport airplane with
the not very fancy interior as it's a military transport.
And which was fine. It was. It was a free
trip and we had to spend as much time as
we wanted on the flight deck. And but one year
apparently there wasn't a C one forty one available, so
they sure they weren't Andrews Air Force Base, and we
gotta we got to send a plane out there and
pick these people up. They are supposedly important.
Speaker 3: You bet you get them where they got to go.
Speaker 4: They said, a VC one thirty seven, and that was
pretty amazing. If you've you know, you've you've traveled on
fancy executive jets. I haven't had the pleasure of doing
that very often, but it's a it's a whole different
world from the from the military transports or even routine airliners.
It was very, very nice interior, and there were no
presidential sales anywhere, if there were places on the walls
where they would have been. But the tail number was
a gimaway. Twenty six thousand was was a tail number
of the one that was used for Air Force run.
This was not that.
Speaker 3: If you have questions, folks, one eight four, eight nine
two two two. As we move into the last quarter
of our show before this particular break, Bill Yenni, author, historian,
book producer. When we come back, Bill, I'd like to
spend the time, if you don't mind, in discussing the
latest iteration of Air Force one, the one that some
people say was rushed into production. I would disagree. And then,
of course the somewhat controversy that we've heard about trying
to get a declarative, you know, answer to what happened
when the president. Of course, why we think we know
why there was a change of venue. And I guess
the question would be when we hold off on that
answer when we come back, is is the new airplane
that's the Katari aircraft, the eight hundred, you know, the
seven forty seven Tosh eight, is it, in your opinion,
really up to par? And is maybe it doesn't have
every single feature that the older seven forty seven has.
And then we'd get you to describe so many of
the things that, well they're not state secrets that you
can tell us about the older air Force one, as
far as some of the big safety features it has,
and some of the amazing shielding, electromagnetic pulse shielding, and
so much more on an airplane like that, it's an
amazing story. And you know I've seen that like you
have so many of these seven forty sevens. We had
an interview not too long ago with a gentleman named
Bill Sutter. I don't know if you ever knew him
from Boeing, the designer of the seven forty seven. People
do hear his little promo every once in a while.
What a story, what an airline designer, not only of
the seven forty seven, but I believe also the seven
twenty seven if I'm correct on that.
Speaker 4: But Bill, he was a key person that at Bowing
in the early days of the jet age.
Speaker 3: Bill, We'll be right back here on the Doctor Sky
Experience one eight eight, four, eight, nine two two. And
we thank you Lad has done it for spending a
good portion of your weekend. As we consider as we
move into the dog days of summer, I need not
remind you about the temperatures that are here, but they're
less than that of the planet of Venus, which every
day the average temperature is nine twenty degrees fahrenheit. But wow,
we're only telling you the truth. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: The Doctor Sky Experience entertaining and informative.
Speaker 2: On the Red Apple podcast Network.
Speaker 1: The Doctor Sky Experience is on the air seventy seven WABC.
Now here's Doctor Sky.
Speaker 4: I happened to be the first guy that both had
the ruler of pleasure of Betest.
Speaker 2: So Doctor Sky.
Speaker 3: Great to hear from late passage, the late passage of
course of General Chuck Yeger, first man to fly faster
than sound nineteen forty seven. But some interesting factoids about
seven forty sevens How about this the slowest commercial seven
forty seven flew at mock zero point zero. It was
converted a seven forty seven two hundred jumbo into a
hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. It had twenty seven rooms and
you could stay in that kind of remodeled seven forty
seven without the wings, I believe for two hundred dollars
US dollars. But on a sad note, the worst aviation
disaster between seven forty sevens happened the islands, the Canary
Islands and Tenerief when two seven forty sevens collided sadly
on the ground, five hundred and eighty three souls perished
during that moment in time billion he joins us author
his story and a book producer his website, Bill Yennie
y E NNY dot com. Bill, in the moments we
have before the close of the show, talk about this
Katari aircraft, the seven forty seven that was gifted to
the US, some of the things about it that you
can tell us, and also what might be when many
people's mind's still an unsolved situation, the change of planes,
and obviously many people read into this as maybe there
was a threat. Again, as we hear about the threats
and assassination attempts, hopefully that never succeeded on President you
know Donald John Trump tell us about the Katari aircraft.
Speaker 4: Well, the original seven forty seven air Force one, the
VC twenty five A was a was a stock two
hundred model with the short upper deck. Bowing had subsequently
introduced the longer, longer upper decks and the seven and
seven seven Dash eight And it's a better airplane. It's
it's more, there's more more room, there's it's technologically better. Yeah.
Air Force has been working with Bullying for for many
many years to get to develop a new a new
air Force one airplane, a new VC five B. And
when Trump came into office, he said, let's let's accelerate
that thing. There's no reason why they should take years
to build up exactly an airplane. And well, the Kataris
offered him an airplane that they had in their fleet.
We have a seven forty seven Dash eight. We'll give
it to them. And so they did, and that was
and it took it took quite a lot of time,
and it did. It took a lot of money to
convert this thing because it needs hardened defenses, it needs
communications gear, needs an aerial refueling capability. Seven forty sevens.
Speaker 3: Don't have that exactly, they don't.
Speaker 4: The VC twenty five AD had it, and that had
to be put into a into the new presidential airplane.
Many many things that internally to this airplane needed to
be done, but they got it done in less than
two years. It had been been going for four or
five six years before that and this, and they still
didn't have an airplane to show for it. So they
got one off the shelf and upgraded it and it
started flying this month. Yes, he went to he took
this airplane to the summit in Anchora, and he and
they sent the older DC twenty five A to pick
him up. And the reason being that the new airplane
does not have the full suite of missile offenses that
the Air Force deans is the minimum requirements for flying
in a war zone. And well, what do you have
in the Middle East? You have a war zone.
Speaker 3: You sure do, Bill, And I'm concerned about one thing
here to go more to the political side of this.
You know, I'm not second guessing anything at this point,
but like you and I and everybody listening, we have
an ability to say, wait, we hold the phone. Folks.
If you knew that this aircraft, the Katari aircraft, is
not all the way up to speed at this point
in time. Why would you risk the president's life when
you know you're going into a hotbed in that area
where even theoretically or maybe more factually, the Iranians still
possessed these missiles, some of them which had much longer range.
I'm sure even if they had just a couple, that's
a big risk assessment. So it's kind of a little
bit surprising that they would even let that happen. But again,
thank god our president is safe. But what do you
say on that. I mean, I don't want to push
you into the political realm too much, but that's that's
a little bit miscalculated in my opinion.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I think, I say, I can see everything
that you're saying, and they would have to say that
I wasn't there.
Speaker 3: I didn't exactly.
Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know why who made this decision.
I don't know why it was made. I do know
that situation, the situation in when he went home in
air there was a ceasefire in place, and that that
ceasefire humbled while he was there. And I know that,
I know that he used he has used the BC
five in the United States. But you know, you're asking
questions that I'm really not qualified to answer.
Speaker 3: No, I totally respect your response, because nobody really can.
I mean, we could go off on different tangents, but
we like to get facts, and of course, with your background,
you've given us a wealth of information on these subjects
of the history of this particular aircraft. And then the
question becomes this, what's next, Bill Jennie? For this, I mean,
are we now in production? So the audience knows that
this particular aircraft, the Katari aircraft, is not going to
be the long stay aircraft. What's in the works right now?
Are they building two new ones? Is that what's happened?
Speaker 4: Yes, they're building They're building two new VC twenty five
b's and look a lot like the Katari aircraft that
they're coming. They're coming straight from the Boeing factory. And
they're going to have all of the defensive features that
are present in the in the VC twenty five A
that's been around for the last twenty five years and more.
And that will that those airplanes are coming.
Speaker 3: Do you know when I mean, is that something that
we're talking about? A couple of years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a couple of years, and nobody knows exactly when that.
That was part of the problem was the the were
They've been working on this for more than a couple
of years, and these things just and yet to materialize.
And that's why the Qataris said, hey, we got one,
you have ours.
Speaker 3: I'd love to have one of those, wouldn't you. But
I don't think either of us not to put you
in a bad financial situation. I'll be totally honest, And
I'm sure everybody listening would imagine what the rate to
run that airplane, the Katari version.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a little pricinger than it would be, a.
Speaker 3: Little out of most people's pockets. I imagine if you
have any clue of what it takes to run one
of those, even forty seven's per hour. I mean, there's
all kinds of numbers out there.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I could leave through some of my notes
here and come up with something that off the top
of my head, I don't know. I know, it's totally
you know, it's one of those things that you have
to ask you can't afford it.
Speaker 3: That's exactly right. I mean, it's amazing. But the new
aircraft that they have right now. The temporary replacement must
be beautiful. I haven't seen, or I don't think anybody's
really seen the beauty of the interior of that aircraft.
If there was no such thing as war and bad
actors in the world. World, it's just a gorgeous executive aircraft.
Speaker 4: Right well, yes it is. It's sort of the best,
you know, the best it can be. It was a
gorgeous executive aircraft when when the Kataris had it, you know,
it's been remodeled for for the president. I bet they.
I bet they've reimpostered all the seats.
Speaker 3: And they went over it with a fine tooth comb,
I'm sure, with every surveillance X ray device known to
mankind or whatever, to make sure that that aircraft had
nothing inside it that compromise and security, communications or anything else.
Speaker 4: Bill. Thank you. We've got to remember these things. This airplane,
this airplane was was built in the United States. It
was not.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely up and probably.
Speaker 4: Bully and Everett Washington. So it's it's an American airplane.
Speaker 3: Billy, Annie, thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
The clock rules as always here and again thank you
to all the guests from our one and everybody, and
excuse me the callers, as we continue to talk about
these great subjects that you tell us if you have
an email that you'd like to send me, I do
promise to email back and respond. That's a simple way
to do it, the polite way. It's just d r
sk y of course at w ABC radio dot com.
And we appreciate everybody. Bill, what's next for you? You
got about a minute or less, any new book coming
that you want to share with us, or any top
Oh I've.
Speaker 4: Got I've got a few things in the works that
I don't have I don't have release dates. Check out
just check check check me out on Amazon or check
me out on jilna dot com and you'll see all
the recent books. Bill.
Speaker 3: The privileging honor to have you here, I really mean that,
I appreciate it. The clock rules and I say thank
you and look forward to talking with you about this
and hopefully we'll meet up at some of the air
shows in the future, or can shake your hand and
get you to sign a couple of my books. And
I'm sure my brother Joe from a Photorecon dot net
would certainly appreciate the same thing. Bill Jenning, author, historian
and book producer. Thanks for being with us on The
Doctor Sky Experience. Always a privilege.
Speaker 4: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1: The Doctor Sky Experience entertaining and informative
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