The historic flight took place in 1943 when United States Presiden Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a Boeing 314 Flying Boat across the Atlantic to a WWII strategy meeting with Winston Churchill in Casablanca.
Although this was the first time a sitting president took a flight, this wasn’t the first trip made by FDR. He had previously taken a trip from New York to Chicago to accept the Democratic nomination for the presidency in person. His legs had been left useless after he contracted polio and it was thought that by flying to Chicago FDR would be able to show the nation how willing and able he was to meet the country’s challenges head on. This was the first time a nominee had taken a trip by plane in order to accept the nomination in person.
Roosevelt would go on to win four presidential elections and died in office in 1945 at the age of 63.
