Several decades in the desert weren’t great for the first Air Force One. What happened? 

Aluminum: The fuselage (the main body of an aircraft) is made from this metal. Aluminum doesn’t rust like iron and steel do. But it does corrode. Corrosion is the gradual deterioration of material. It’s caused by chemical reactions with its environment. Usually, that’s due to moisture around the metal.  

Most of the airplane’s body was still in good shape. But there was some corrosion on the underside, especially where there were layers of aluminum. Mr. Borchers says 10 panels were replaced.  

Wood: After being in the desert, the wood walls and floor are very dry. That means they could burn easily. Even before that, the wood was a fire hazard. “If you put wood in an airplane nowadays, it is specially treated so it won’t burn,” Mr. Borchers says.  

Plus, the walls are full of holes. Cotton was stapled all over it. Headliner covered that padding. The cotton cushioning is yellow, not white. That shows it was treated to resist burning. Mr. Borchers will replace the padding with foam that resists burning. He’ll cover that with headliner made from a plastic material. 

Rubber: “The desert air will ruin anything that’s rubber, ” says Mr. Borchers. Rubber is made of long, linked molecules. Heat, light, and oxygen can break down those long molecules. And there’s a lot of all three of those components in the desert. 

The plane originally had much rubber. It was in oil hoses, hydraulic lines (that carry water or other fluids), and brake lines. Over the years, the rubber got very hard. With any movement, it cracked. That could cause leaks. Mechanics replaced all the rubber in the aircraft.