Roosevelt's Chair

Ohio History

The Lift

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plane also had the distinction of being the first airplane specifically built for Presidential use. I was still in the aircraft when I took this picture, looking down into a hatch opening in the floor of the plane. Since he was a victim of polio and unable to walk, President Roosevelt could not board the plane easily. This elevator allowed him to remain in his wheelchair and be lifted comfortably into the plane, rather than being carried up the stairs. You can see the chair ready and loaded into the lift. Roosevelt traveled to the Soviet Union in this airplane to meet with Allied leaders in 1945. It must have made headlines all across the country!