For vice presidents of the United States, frequent travel is in the job description. Luckily, they get to travel in style.
While traversing the country and the world, Vice President JD Vance flies in a custom C-32 plane featuring an advanced communications center, conference room, and private stateroom.
The plane measures 155 feet long and can fly 5,500 nautical miles without refueling. When Vance is on board, it’s known as “Air Force Two.”
Presidents also occasionally fly aboard C-32s when traveling to smaller airports that can’t accommodate the larger VC-25 Air Force One jets. On Monday, President Donald Trump used a C-32, which had been repainted in his preferred red, white, and blue livery, for a trip to Michigan.
Here’s how the vice president’s plane has changed through the years.
Any Air Force plane carrying the US vice president is called “Air Force Two.”
Similar to the president aboard “Air Force One,” the designation of “Air Force Two” refers to any Air Force plane carrying the vice president, not a specific jet or model.
Over the years, several different planes have carried the Air Force Two title, transporting vice presidents and their staff around the world. The most commonly used jet is a C-32, a customized military version of a commercial Boeing 757-200 plane, according to the Air Force.
The vice president is generally prohibited from flying on “Air Force One,” any Air Force plane carrying the president.
The president and vice president don’t travel together for security reasons.
It’s customary for presidents and vice presidents to salute service members as they board and disembark presidential planes.
Service members are required to salute the president as commander in chief, and it’s customary for troops to salute vice presidents, as well.
Richard Nixon was the first vice president to travel internationally via jet on official business, visiting what was then the USSR in 1959.
Nixon, who served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s vice president, flew on a Boeing VC-137A Stratoliner to visit the USSR in 1959.
Beginning with the Ford administration in 1975, this DC-9 jet flew as Air Force Two until 2005.
The jet was first used by President Gerald Ford’s vice president, Nelson Rockefeller.
It featured a VIP cabin with 10 seats and a main cabin with 32 first-class seats.
The plane transferred units in 2005, during the Bush administration, and retired in 2011. It was put up for auction by the General Services Administration in 2013.
Vice President Al Gore decorated the VIP cabin with family photos.
Gore worked on his acceptance speech for the 2000 Democratic National Convention aboard Air Force Two.
The cabin also featured a clock with different time zone displays.
The clock featured the time in Washington, DC, and whatever destination Air Force Two was bound for.
The updated C-32 plane most commonly used by vice presidents first deployed in 1998.
With a wingspan of nearly 125 feet, each engine features 41,700 pounds of static thrust, according to the Air Force.
As vice president, Joe Biden hung a map of the world in his Air Force Two work area.
Biden traveled over one million miles on Air Force Two during his time as vice president.
Mike Pence’s staff decorated Air Force Two for his birthday in 2017.
Staffers celebrated the vice president’s birthday with streamers and balloons aboard the jet.
Kamala Harris also celebrated birthdays on the plane.
Harris brought cupcakes and sang “Happy Birthday” to her domestic policy advisor, Kate Childs Graham, in 2021.
Air Force Two is occasionally used by presidential and vice presidential spouses, as well as Cabinet members.
During the Biden administration, second gentleman Doug Emhoff traveled aboard Air Force Two. He was photographed filling out his March Madness basketball bracket on his way to Las Vegas in March 2021.
The back of Air Force Two contains 32 business-class seats for members of the press.
Vice presidents and staff occasionally hold informal briefings with reporters known as “press gaggles” aboard Air Force Two.
The press area features TV screens that can play cable news.
The rear cabin also contains a galley, two bathrooms, and closets.
Vice President JD Vance has taken several international trips on Air Force Two.
As of July 2026, Vance has taken nine trips abroad since taking office, including visits to France, Germany, Greenland, Vatican City, Italy, Israel, and India.
In September 2025, Air Force Two transported Charlie Kirk’s casket after the Turning Point USA cofounder was shot and killed.
Kirk was an early supporter of JD Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign and pushed for his nomination as Trump’s vice president. Kirk was fatally shot on the first stop of his “American Comeback Tour” on September 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Air Force Two flew Kirk’s body from Salt Lake City to Phoenix for burial. The vice president helped carry Kirk’s casket onto the plane along with other uniformed service members. Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, joined JD Vance and Usha Vance on board.
JD Vance recalled the experience in his memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” writing of Erika Kirk that he had “never seen a person so heavy with grief.”
In July 2026, President Donald Trump flew on a C-32 with an updated paint job for a trip to Michigan.
On July 27, Trump flew to Michigan to tour General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground. He boarded a C-32 that had been repainted red, white, and blue to match the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft he accepted as a gift from Qatari royals to use as Air Force One. The C-32’s new look also featured an updated waving flag design on the tail.
After Trump flew back from a NATO summit on July 8 on the old Air Force One instead of the VC-25B, prompting questions about the security of the new jet, Trump told reporters that the new plane would be removed from service for a month to be “maxed out.”
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