A massive Boeing 747-800 used to train pilots to fly Air Force One was doing touch-and-go exercises and refueling Thursday at the Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport.
While not unusual for the Air Force to use the local airport for training exercises, those usually involve smaller aircraft, like the 757, used to transport other high-ranking dignitaries, said airport director Andy Moore.
The four-engine, all-white aircraft is the longest commercial aircraft ever built. It took off from Andrews Air Force Base and attracted a crowd at the airport as pilots took the aircraft through various maneuvers between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
"That one was so massive you couldn't ignore it," Moore said. "You don't see that plane in our sky at all."
There is little advance notice of the training flights, Moore said, but those are fit into regular airport traffic and do not cause disruption.
