Skeptic Review

Fast Facts:

The Beast is The Presidential State Car.

Also known as Cadillac One

Code Name: Stage Coach

The Secret Service maintains all responsibility for the presidential cars. Consequently, much of its features are classified.

Armored and sealed. Driver’s window can open.

There are estimated to be about one dozen “Beasts.”

Equipped with communications gear, bulletproof glass, weapons, emergency medical equipment (including blood).

Once a car is put out of commission, it is destroyed to conceal design secrets.

Speculated to weigh about 15,000 pounds which limits speed.

No keyholes. Only the Secret Service knows the access to the vehicle.

Standard Washington DC License Plate.

The automobiles are transported by the C-17 Globemaster III (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Shane A. Cuomo)

The C-17 Globemaster III is the newest, most flexible cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force. The C-17 is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and all types of cargo to main operating bases or directly to forward bases in the deployment area. The aircraft can perform tactical airlift and airdrop missions and can transport litters and ambulatory patients during aeromedical evacuations when required.

General Characteristics
Primary Function: Cargo and troop transport
Prime Contractor: Boeing Company
Power Plant: Four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbofan engines
Thrust: 40,440 pounds, each engine
Wingspan: 169 feet 10 inches (to winglet tips) (51.75 meters)
Length: 174 feet (53 meters)
Height: 55 feet 1 inch (16.79 meters)
Cargo Compartment: length, 88 feet (26.82 meters); width, 18 feet (5.48 meters); height, 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 meters)
Speed: 450 knots at 28,000 feet (8,534 meters) (Mach .74)
Service Ceiling: 45,000 feet at cruising speed (13,716 meters)
Range: Global with in-flight refueling
Crew: Three (two pilots and one loadmaster)
Aeromedical Evacuation Crew: A basic crew of five (two flight nurses and three medical technicians) is added for aeromedical evacuation missions. Medical crew may be altered as required by the needs of patients
Maximum Peacetime Takeoff Weight: 585,000 pounds (265,352 kilograms)
Load: 102 troops/paratroops; 36 litter and 54 ambulatory patients and attendants; 170,900 pounds (77,519 kilograms) of cargo (18 pallet positions)
Unit Cost: $202.3 million (fiscal 1998 constant dollars)
Date Deployed: June 1993
Inventory: Active duty, 187; Air National Guard, 12; Air Force Reserve, 14