'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario

ABC News ^ | June 7, 2011 | MICHAEL MURRAY

[sukhoi-30mki]

'Doomsday Plane' Would Save President and Joint Chiefs in Apocalypse Scenario

By MICHAEL MURRAY

June 7, 2011

In the event of nuclear war, a powerful meteor strike or even a zombie apocalypse, the thoroughly protected doomsday plane is ready to keep the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff and other key personnel in the air and out of danger. It may not deflect a Twitter photo scandal, but it can outrun a nuclear explosion and stay in the air for days without refueling.

The flight team for the E-4B, its military codename, sleeps nearby and is ready to scramble in five minutes. It was mobilized in the tumultuous hours after planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and southern Pennsylvania on 9/11.

"If the command centers that are on the ground in the United States have a failure of some sort, or attack, we immediately get airborne. We're on alert 24/7, 365," Captain W. Scott "Easy" Ryder, Commander, NAOC, told ABC News' Diane Sawyer as she traveled to Afghanistan with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on the apocalypse-proof plane. "Constantly there's at least one alert airplane waiting to get airborne."

ll E-4B aircraft are assigned to the 55th Wing, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. The modified 747s can travel at speeds up to 620 miles per hour, 40 miles per hour faster than their commercial counterparts.

The $223 million aircraft is outfitted with an electromagnetic pulse shield to protect its 165,000 pounds of advanced electronics. Thermo-radiation shields also protect the plane in the event of a nuclear strike.

[ExtremeUnction]

And why do we know this?? Why does anyone know this? Regardless of the president’s party, why is this public knowledge?

[DefeatCorruption]

Does it have a golf course?

---

Will it save Mooshell’s ass too?

[OldNewYork]

“...165,000 pounds of advanced electronics.”

Really? That’s going to take a lot of fuel to keep it up there then. And if it’s a real ‘apocalypse’, where are the refueling planes going to take off from? It would probably be money better spent keeping the whole country safe.

[dagogo redux]

Hope they defund this nonsense someday. The Federal Government has certainly become a thing apart from the people: Government of the Feds, by the Feds, and for the Feds.

I want to see the Obama gear up and lead a few ops FROM THE FRONT in any of the vital, national interest hot spots we’re fighting in at this time. Women in combat? You bet! Put a helmet on Michelle (may not fit in the rest of the uniform) and send her out on Afghan convoys with the rifle and side arms and other ordinances of her choice. Let her eat a few MREs in the sand. Then tell these two bozos to come back and talk to me. Sheesh!

[Cheetahcat]

The plane should fit the occupant,the case of the Kenyan mental cripple,would call for a rubber-band powered balsa wood toy.

[Right Brother]

Does it have a golf course?

Yep....and a Baskin-Robbins.

[43north]

[It’s a hybrid...that runs on flex fuel...and solar panels... /s.]

Wrong, wrong, wrong. It runs on Bullsh!t which the pResident, congresscritters, and military brass have always been able to produce in sufficient quantity to keep a 747 fueled for day, weeks, months, perhaps even YEARS!

[JoeProBono]

[ari-freedom]

This way, if the world goes nuclear ballistic, Obama can still make his NCAA picks safe and secure.

[I see my hands]

"24/7/365"

24/7/52

[garjog]

Then we can all relax. The President and Joint Chiefs will be safe!

[GravityFree]

"What goes up . . . must come down. Talkin' 'bout your troubles it's a cryin' sin. Ride a painted pony let the spinnin' wheel spin."

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Funny, but this almost makes me want to go out in the first wave of whatever apocalypse comes. Last thing in the world I’d want is to be one of the few remaining subjects for emperor sotero to lord over.

Better to be dead.

[unkus]

That plane would end up dropping like a rock. They don’t glide.

[upchuck]

"The plane can stay in-flight for days without refueling, a necessity if circumstances demanded the plane's use by the nation's top officials."

Days? I doubt that. Maybe with refueling.

[Squantos]

The kite string is hard to see in the pictures.....

[The Antiyuppie]

“Question: how can it stay airborne for days I wonder? Its a modified 747 and they can’t stay up for days.”

1. It has environmentally friendly solar cells mounted on top, and it’s fast enough to stay in sunlight 24 hours a day

OR

2. It has deployable pinwheels that extend from the fuselage attached to generators to run the propellers

OR

3. It is equipped with a Sterling engine and with the Administration on board there is an inexhaustible supply of hot air for operation

[garjog]

Is there room for bo? Or will he be fried like all of OUR pets?

[Hoosier-Daddy]

"But did they account for the weight of Michelle’s fat booty arse?"

For that they'll use the cargo version...

[Cheerio]

If memory serves, the codename ( callsign ) was Looking Glass.

You are correct - there is nothing "new" about either the E-4A (EC-135J) or E-4B (B747). The first E-4A were delivered in 1974. The E-4B NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) is designed to survive an EMP with systems intact,[5] and has state-of-the-art direct fire countermeasures. The E-4B uses analog instruments because they are less susceptible to an EMP.[6] The E-4B is capable of operating with a crew of 48 to 112 people, the largest crew of any aircraft in US Air Force history. With in-flight refueling it is capable of remaining airborne for a considerable period (limited only by consumption of the engines' lubricants). In a test flight for endurance, the aircraft remained airborne and fully operational for 35.4 hours. It takes two fully loaded KC-135 tankers to fully refuel an E-4B. The E-4B has three operational decks; upper, middle and lower.