The most famous Boeing 747 in the world landed at the Quad City International Airport Wednesday afternoon.
The President and First Lady finished up a campaign rally in the Village of East Davenport and headed across the river to board Air Force One and head back to Washington D.C.
A lot of planning takes place when the President of the United States flies out of any given airport, and the QC Airport is no exception.
"It's exciting in a lot of ways just from the planning perspective," said QC Airport Assistant Aviation Director, Bryan Johnson. "We involve ourselves with the advanced teams, both Air Force and Secret Service, then there is a White House press group also in contact with us as well."
It's not just Air Force One that QC Airport officials need to be concerned about. There's the press plane and several C-17s, too.
C-17s are used to ferry security vehicles, armored limousines, and communications gear into cities ahead of President Obama's campaign appearances. The cargo aircrafts have been used to fly troops, weapons and supplies into U.S. bases in Afghanistan, Iraq and other sites in the Middle East during the decade-long operations there.
Air Force One takes off, leaving the QCA, and massive support aircrafts arrive to pick up everything left behind -- bringing it all back to Andrews Air Force Base.
Quad City Airport personnel have to work together with the Secret Service and the FAA to make sure all of these aircrafts land and take-off when they need to.
But Johnson said, even though the Commander in Chief is on board, presidential staff are typically easy to coordinate with --
"They're very cognizant of time, the last thing they want to do is hold people up. They know we have lives, too," Johnson said."I think that's what makes this special, to see all the different elements of government and branches of government coming together to make this work."
Part of the security measures put into place are temporary flight restrictions for every aircraft other than Air Force One. Other aircrafts have to stay grounded before and after Air Force One takes off.
