Interesting air traffic sightings

[steve58]

My wife and I have lived in Northern Virginia the last 10+ years and we see/hear lots of air traffic of all kinds...civilian and military (love to see/hear the Ospreys, Blackhawks and C130s fly by).  Saw something new today, twice.  Earlier this afternoon, my wife called me out to the deck because 4 heavy helicopters were flying by, heading towards DC.  Didn't get a real good look at them, but they looked like Sea Kings, which we'd seen before flying around the Washington Monument/WH back when GW was CiC.

Then earlier this evening, we were out on the deck enjoying the cool early evening air and I heard the sounds of jets and looked up.  Saw a very high flying jet liner (AF1? tanker?) being escorted by 5 smaller jets, all heading in a westerly direction.  Not posting for any particular reason other than both instances were something I'd not seen before in our area.  Maybe it was some training mission or maybe HC was heading west to scam some donors out of more $$ :))

[Nefaro]

Isn't AF1 always escorted by a flight of fighters?

[JasonPratt]

Also, I recall hearing (on an ep of NCIS) that the President always flies in a formation of four choppers for security.

[mirth]

Isn't AF1 always escorted by a flight of fighters?

I don't believe so.

The presidential 747s have a lot of built in defensive capability.  I imagine the routes are planned so that fighters could be called up in a hurry if needed.