August 24, 2023
Special Air Mission (SAM) 970 is the moniker used for the first presidential jet plane, a Boeing 707-153. It could also be used to describe Crisanto (Cris) Aquino’s recent trip down to The Museum of Flight as part of the Detail Mafia team.
Cris owns Dr. Shine PHD, an automotive detailing shop in Winnipeg. He also works part-time at Cadorath Aerospace as a machinist. His journey to becoming part of the Detail Mafia started in 2017 when he went down to Big Bear, California to train under master-level detailer Renny Doyle.
Doyle is the owner of Detailing Success and the founder of the Detail Mafia. In 2002, Doyle received a call from the White House asking him to put together a detailing team. Their mission? Cleaning and restoring the deteriorating paint and aluminum on a number of historical aircraft at the Seattle Museum of Flight. After Cris completed his training in 2017, Doyle hand-selected him to join the team heading to Seattle the following year.
That first year, Cris was assigned “rookie work” as he calls it. This consisted of wiping down aircraft, light sanding, and cleaning equipment for the veteran detailers. During his next trip down in 2019, he was assigned to SAM 970, the aircraft used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon and known as Air Force One when it was carrying these heads of state.
COVID-19 put a stop to Cris’ trips to Seattle until this year. He was again assigned to SAM 970 and for one week in July he and other detailers spent 12 hours a day polishing it to a “mirror finish.” Cris worked primarily on the Boeing 707’s four, JT3D-3 Pratt and Whitney jet engines, each one taking him an entire day to detail. (If you come by our museum, take a look at our CF-104 Starfighter for an example of Cris’ work. He helped with its cleaning and polishing before it came to our museum.)
This year, there were 35 detailers making up the Detail Mafia team. Seven of them joined Cris on SAM 970 and the others were assigned to the Concorde jet G-BOAG, the first Boeing 727 and Boeing 747 aircraft ever produced, the Boeing Bee B-17, and the museum’s B-29 Superfortress.
Perhaps one of the most memorable parts of his week was when Cris met veteran Captain Dick Nelms, a B-17 pilot on 35 missions during WWII and an active volunteer at the Museum of Flight. He also had the chance to explore this aircraft and the B-29, two of the planes that are off-limits to the public unless you’re a veteran or in the armed forces. For the Star Wars fans out there, the cockpit of this aircraft was the inspiration for the Millennium Falcon, so it’s an understatement when Cris says this was a “pretty cool” experience.
There’s a lot of pride in Cris’ voice as he talks about the experience, and rightly so. He was the only Canadian on the team and the first Canadian to work on Air Force One in the past twenty years.
Cris hopes to join the team again next year but notes that it will be dependent on sponsorships. All members of the Detail Mafia team are volunteers who pay their own way to Seattle. They’re also responsible for their own accommodations and meals. The museum pays for supplies but team members bring their own tools and equipment with them.
If you’re interested in learning more about Cris’ experience, you can contact him here.
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