Polishing History

Aquino, an autobody detailer and machinist who overhauls helicopter engines, was invited to participate after taking a course in the United States with master detailer Renny Doyle, who has been restoring the first presidential jet for two decades.

Known as Special Air Mission (SAM) 970, the jet went into service in 1959 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. A match for the high-speed Tupolev jet that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was then using, the aircraft dramatically accelerated U.S. diplomacy: During his Flight to Peace goodwill tour in 1959, Eisenhower visited eleven Asian nations in nineteen days, a pace twice as fast as the previous propeller-driven planes could achieve.

In 1962, SAM 970 was replaced by a newer Boeing VC-137C. But SAM 970 remained in the presidential fleet as a backup, ferrying VIPs and the vice-president, until June 1996, when it was retired to its current home in the museum.

Since it is on display outdoors in a moist coastal climate, SAM 970 requires a makeover every year. That’s where Aquino comes in. Armed with a hand-held electric polisher and a bottle of polishing compound, he climbs up and down a ladder or lift and works on the plane’s aluminum body until it shines to a mirror finish.

“It’s physically very difficult,” he said. “We work on it for six days, ten hours a day. Mornings are cold, afternoons are hot, sometimes it’s raining.”

Aquino was ready to make last July’s adventure with Air Force One his last. But then a Second World War veteran, bomber pilot Dick Nelms, paid a visit to the site. “Talking to that veteran gave me a boost, and I stopped complaining,” he said.

Aquino plans to go back next year if asked: “I’m just honoured to be part of that, knowing that I’m the only Canadian who has touched that plane.”