Air Force One Hybrid Construction

The new Air Force One hybrid is a modified Boeing 747-400ER, an extended-range version of the classic jetliner. On a typical 747-400ER, four engines deliver around 63,300 pounds (28,710 kg) of thrust [source: Boeing].

Originally, says U.S. Department of Defense contractor Dr. Vivian Blanchard, the government considered a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, an aircraft designed from the ground up to be more energy efficient than other passenger planes. Boeing says its Dreamliner is 20 percent more fuel efficient than other comparable aircraft. Normally outfitted for passenger travel, the Dreamliner can carry 210 to 290 passengers depending on its configuration, though modified for presidential use, the plane seats fewer. A normal 787 can travel 7,650 to 8,500 nautical miles (14,200 to 15,750 km) [source: Boeing].

There were problems with the plane, Blanchard says. "Unfortunately, Air Force One would need to be larger to accommodate the needs of the president, and Boeing couldn't adapt the airframe to carry the number of batteries we would need to make the hybrid Air Force One work in the time frame we wanted. So we had to go to plan B."

The first thing engineers needed to accomplish was to install the hybrid energy system.

Air Force One Hybrid uses more than 2,000 lead-acid batteries in a parallel hybrid team with its four regular jet engines. That means that the plane's engines rely on a combination of fuel and battery power to turn, making them work more efficiently.

To keep the plane from relying on fossil fuels, Air Force One Hybrid's engines use a flexible fuel system. Every day, a special team collects used cooking oil from the White House, the Capitol building and other government-owned commissaries to be cleaned and reused as biofuel. In a pinch, and for areas where biofuels aren't readily available, jet fuel can still be used.

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Cooking oil, used to power the four flexible-fuel engines on Air Force One, is taken from the White House and refined to use as aviation biofuel.

Since the job of Air Force One is to help the president make appearances around the world, it has to be ready to fly long distances. A typical 747-400ER can carry around 63,500 gallons of fuel (240,370 L), which is enough to take it from Los Angeles to Melbourne, Australia [source: Boeing]. The hybrid version, Blanchard said, is capable of distances at least that long using jet fuel alone. The parallel hybrid system adds another 500 miles (805 km) to that under optimal circumstances.

Col. Branch Heward, of the Presidential Airlift Group stationed at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., said he likes taking the new Air Force One up. "It's as smooth as silk," he said. "But it's strange stepping off the plane and the engines smell like Freedom Fries."

Blanchard said she expects that the new Air Force One will be around 15 to 20 percent more energy efficient than its predecessors, "though we certainly will be working to improve upon that."