Lunchtime Distraction

Last year it was Monaco One parked at good ol' Quonset State Airport. Today KOQU decided to up the ante, as Air Force One is currently siting on the tarmac down at the RI-ANG end of the facility. I'd wondered about the possibility of this a couple of days ago when I'd noticed what looked like Marine One sitting amidst the RI-NG helicopters . Sure enough, Bush is in town to give a speech over at the Naval War College in Newport. (It's the first time he's actually been to Rhode Island since he became President. Probably finally getting around to crossing off states from his to do list.)

I was kind of surprised at how little obvious security there was in the vicinity of the airport. There were a couple of airport police cars imported from PVD wandering about the taxiways, but not much else that I could see. The airport itself is closed to general aviation traffic, and there are flight restrictions above, but nothing on the ground outside the perimeter of the base.

The one mystery of the day is the presence of a JetBlue A-320 parked next to the terminal. Press corps transport maybe? Alas, I didn't have my camera with me, so no pictures.

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The AF1 sighting caps one heck of an Airshow week at KOQU. At some point I need to post a recap of the weekend. There are an awful lot of photos.