Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used to transport the president and a metonym for the primary presidential aircraft, VC-25, although it can be used to refer to any Air Force aircraft the president travels on.

The idea of designating specific military aircraft to transport the president arose during World War II when military advisors in the War Department were concerned about the risk of using commercial airlines for presidential travel. A C-54 Skymaster was then converted for presidential use; dubbed the Sacred Cow, it carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945 and was used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman.

The "Air Force One" call sign was created in 1953, after a Lockheed Constellation carrying President Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same flight number. Since the introduction of SAM 26000 in 1962, the primary presidential aircraft has carried the distinctive livery designed by Raymond Loewy.

Other aircraft designated as Air Force One have included another Lockheed Constellation, Columbine III, three Boeing 707s, introduced in the 1960s and 1970s, and the current Boeing VC-25As. Since 1990, the presidential fleet has consisted of two highly customized Boeing 747-200B (VC-25A) aircraft. The USAF has ordered two Boeing 747-8s to serve as the next presidential aircraft, with designation VC-25B.

The five Airbus aircraft that make up the fleet were originally civilian airliners purchased and operated by Wardair. First delivered in 1987 and 1988, they were transferred to Canadian Airlines when the two airlines merged in 1989. The aircraft were subsequently sold to the Canadian Armed Forces and converted for military use, entering service between December 1992 and August 1993. Four of the five aircraft were converted to the Combi-Freighter standard with a reinforced floor and side opening cargo door. The fifth was modified as a VIP transport aircraft for government executive transport.

The CC-150 replaced the Boeing CC-137 (converted Boeing 707) as a strategic transport when the final transport-configured CC-137s were retired in 1997.

This presidential aircraft is considered[by whom?] the best in Latin America[citation needed]. The plane is certified to fly by instruments under any weather conditions, has a range of nearly eleven hours of flight and can travel six thousand miles per tank at cruising speed. Inside, the Benito Juarez has room for 66 passengers and 15 crew members. At the center of the ship there is an area reserved for the President, which includes an office, bedroom and bathroom. In addition, due to spending enough time in hangar-unlike, for example, the Air Force of Argentina and Chile, which are open-parked, weather-related damage to this particular plane is relatively minimal. However, it has not been without incident. On February 8, 2008, Benito Juárez staggered before landing in Newark, New Jersey, so the pilot had to balance the plane to prevent from proceeding to the grasslands of the Newark airport.