To catch you in a bit of pedantry, "Air Force 1" is the designation of any aircraft the president is on, so technically, yes? If the vice-president is flying I think it's called "Air Force 2".

A modern take on an old classic: is the plane Air Force One because the president is onboard, or is the president onboard because it's Air Force One?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma

Every aircraft carrying the President is Air Force One, every helicopter carrying him is Marine One. Even if it would be a US Airways flight from Baltimore to Chicago.

In practice, yes. Pedantically, any Air Force aircraft carrying the president is Air Force One, no matter how it flies. Any Marine Corps aircraft will be Marine One. And as you might expect, there would be an Army One and Navy One as well.

I do not believe you are correct on the designation for a commercial flight if the president were on board. There is 'Executive One' if he flies on a US civil aircraft, but that is still federally owned.

No, if the President was on a US Airways flight, he would be on Executive One [1], not Air Force One.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_One

Very interesting... from the article, in case others were also wondering:

> On December 26, 1973, to "set an example for the rest of the nation during the current energy crisis" and to "demonstrate his confidence in the airlines", then-President Richard Nixon became the only sitting president to travel on a regularly scheduled commercial airline flight when he flew on a United Airlines DC-10 from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport.[2] A Nixon aide carried a suitcase-sized secure communication device on board the plane, so that the President could remain in contact with Washington in the event of an emergency.

I stand corrected.

It's also military and they don't broadcast ADS-B unless they want to. They have their own encrypted transponder for other stuff.

It is. It has a different call sign when it flies without the President.