The Bug

One day last week President Eisenhower stepped into a small, twin-engined, blue-and-white airplane at National Airport and took off. Thirty-two minutes later, the trim little craft sat down on the 2,200-ft. grass runway at Gettysburg, Pa. After a pleasant tour of his farm, the President flew home in just 22 minutes.

This was not the first time that Dwight Eisenhower had flown in a small aircraft (he soloed in the Philippines in 1937), but it was the first time that the President of the U.S. had.* In the past the Secret Service has insisted that presidential planes have at least four engines. But the practicality and convenience of a light plane for short trips was obvious. By car, the round trip to Gettysburg from Washington takes four hours, and the runways at the local airport will not accommodate the big four-engined Columbine. After months of study and testing, the Secret Service finally agreed to let Ike ride in a two-engined craft.

The new plane, an Aero Commander 560, was built by the Aero Design and Engineering Co., has been tested and certified for presidential airlifting by the Air Force as well as the Secret Service. (On one test flight the plane was flown from Bethany, Okla. to Washington on one engine.) It has a cruising speed of 200 m.p.h., can accommodate two passengers and two crewmen (on comfortable seats upholstered in blue nylon). Its cost to the Government: approximately $75,000. The President has not christened the plane yet, but the crew calls it "The Bug."

Ike, accompanied by two Air Force pilots and James J. Rowley, Chief of the White House Secret Service Detail, was obviously pleased by the flight. The Bug was tailed by three agents, armed with pistols and Tommy guns, in a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza. Said Ike: "A lovely plane."

*Franklin Roosevelt was the first President to take to the air. In 1943 the Secret Service decided that the menace of German submarines was too great for a transatlantic voyage, permitted him to fly from Miami to Casablanca.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.