Here’s Why You May Have Seen Air Force One Flying Over Maine This Week

There's something funny about Maine when it comes to air traffic. Despite being a vast state in acreage and small in population, when a military aircraft flys overhead anywhere in the state, people tend to take notice and wonder why.

That was the case on Reddit earlier this week, as a Redditor proclaimed that they noticed Air Force One flying over Bangor. Air Force One is the official airplane designated for travel by the President of the United States of America, and since President Joe Biden had no scheduled visits to Maine this week, what gives?

The answer lies it what has become a pretty common practice in Maine airspace in recent years. And that practice is, well, practice. Air Force One is a modified Boeing 747-200 jet, and while there are simulators available to train pilots on the aircraft, those simulators are for the standard model.

That means the federal government will occasionally run test exercises for pilots on the modified version of the jet to ensure full understanding and feel for the aircraft. Air Force One was simply using a Maine airport with a long runway and limited traffic to execute these important exercises.

For the record, any aircraft where the President is on board can be referred to as Air Force One. When he's not on board, it's given a different name. But as the White House points out, it's now common practice to refer to the specialized planes as Air Force One at all times.

Last summer, people across the state of Maine and New Hampshire began complaining and worrying about excessive military jet noise over portions of the state. With tensions running high among world powers, many residents wondered what was going on.

Similar to these recent training exercises with Air Force One, the National Guard was running of series of training operations to ensure practices were up to date.