Aircraft
Boeing BBJ ‘Freedom Plane’ Now a Flying Archives Exhibit
Historic founding documents tour the U.S. on a VIP-configured 737-700
Boeing 737 Freedom Plane
A digital rendering of Boeing’s 737 “Freedom Plane” shows that the aircraft’s tail number is N836BA. FAA records indicate this is a 26-year-old 737-700 Boeing Business Jet, or BBJ1. © National Archives Foundation

A Boeing BBJ painted in patriotic “Freedom Plane” livery and carrying original founding-era U.S. documents will be visiting museums across the country this year to celebrate the 250th anniversary, or semiquincentennial, of the nation’s founding. The Boeing Company, which owns the aircraft, is providing the BBJ for the traveling exhibition and offering operational support. 

The traveling exhibition—dubbed “Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation”—will stop at eight U.S. cities from March to August, and it will be open to the public with free admission at all venues. The National Archives and Records Administration is organizing the tour in partnership with the National Archives Foundation, with support from Boeing, Comcast, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble.