WASHINGTON 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. Were 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 theres at least one alert airplane waiting to get airborne. All 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. A highly-trained security team travels with the plane.
