Peoria Station

PEORIA – For the third time in little more than two years, a sitting president has visited Peoria. President Barack Obama arrived at Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport just after 2:30 this afternoon. Following his speech at Caterpillar’s Building HH in East Peoria, the president returned to his plane which then departed for Springfield so he could attend an event for Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. He was here for about 2 1/2 hours.

The president’s plane, 28000, a Boeing 747-200B (USAF designation VC-25A), is the same plane used by President George W. Bush’s for his visit last July 25. Today’s visit is the fourth known instance in which this large aircraft type has landed at the local airport. A UPS 747 is known to have visited the airport sometime in the mid- to late-1980’s. The others are the three presidential visits.  (USAF 747’s [designated as E-4A's] have occasionally performed “touch-and-goes” here since at least 1989 but haven’t landed.) PIA occasionally hosts a USAF C-5 Galaxy, which is larger than a 747.

- David P. Jordan