2026 will see a lot of big celebrations and special events as America celebrates its 250th birthday, including, among others, a NASCAR street race on an active military base and the Freedom 250 INDYCAR race on the streets of Washington, D.C. Up in the sky, meanwhile, a flying tour of American history is taking flight for a nationwide journey that will bring some of America’s most storied founding documents to public display in cities across the country.
Known as the Freedom Plane National Tour, this special airborne mission recently embarked from Washington, D.C. for its first stop in Kansas City — one of eight different cities the tour will visit during the spring and summer. The tour is being done in collaboration with the National Archives, and on board the plane are nine original documents from America’s founding. The historic documents are traveling together for the first time and will be shown at different museums along the route.
Though this is the first time a tour like this will use an aircraft, the Freedom Plane Tour takes both its name and inspiration from two different nationwide railroad tours that happened at different points during the 20th century, with similar historic documents and artifacts traveling across the country on specially decorated trains.
The original Freedom Trains
The first iteration of the Freedom Train took to the rails in the late 1940s on a national tour to promote American history and ideals as the country recovered from World War II and the Great Depression. The train carried 132 historical documents that were displayed in specially prepared armored railroad cars, and was pulled by what was at the time, a state-of-the-art ALCO diesel locomotive.
The second iteration of the tour, the American Freedom Train, traveled the country in 1975 and 1976 to celebrate America’s bicentennial. These tours used historic steam locomotives that were repainted in patriotic colors. Displayed on board the 26-car traveling museum were over 500 artifacts spanning American history and culture, including the original Louisiana Purchase document, Martin Luther King Jr.’s robes, and even a lunar rock brought back from NASA’s moon missions. The 1970s Freedom Train toured all of the lower 48 states and drew millions of visitors to its stops.
As part of current 250th anniversary celebrations, one of the locomotives used on the bicentennial Freedom Train has been restored to its bicentennial appearance, and though it may not be adorned in the same red, white, and blue colors as the earlier Freedom Trains, the Union Pacific Railroad is doing a nationwide tour with its historic Big Boy steam locomotive to help celebrate America’s 250th.
History flying to a city near you?
50 years after the last Freedom Train traveled the nation, the modern, airborne version of the tour is using a specially painted version of the iconic Boeing 737 airliner. The plane itself is owned by Boeing, who is partnering with the National Archives to run the tour.
Among the historic documents being carried on the 737 are William Stone’s engraving of the Declaration of Independence from 1823, the colonial era Articles of Association from 1774, and the 1783 Treaty of Paris signed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay. The plane will also carry the marked-up version of the original Bill of Rights from September 1789.
The Freedom Plane National Tour will run through the summer and includes stops in a number of major American cities, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Miami. The tour will partner with museums in each city, where local residents will get the rare chance to visit and see these founding documents in person. Each museum display stop will last about two weeks, with the tour wrapping up in Seattle, Washington, in August.
