A Philadelphia-area historic autographs firm has recently donated an MP3 edition of the recordings made on Air Force One on November 22, 1963, immediately following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy earlier that day. The Washington Post reports via the Associated Press that the Raab Collection, “a nationally recognized name in historical autographs,” bought the recordings and donated a digital copy to the National Archives. I’ve listened to bits and pieces of the recording and there is a lot of the chatter typical among pilots and air traffic control folks, but the Raab Collection has excerpted some of the more interesting bits on their web page about the recordings.
The new discovery contains close to 40 minutes of material the government hasn’t had on record until now. Since the recording is now in the public domain, I’ve embedded the files below. You can stream them here or download the files right from this page by clicking the “Download” link. Find Side 2 and more information at the GPO website (MP3 format) or at Wikimedia Commons (OGG format). If you can settle for nothing less than the real thing, the Ardmore-based Raab Collection will gladly turn the original tapes over to you for a cool $500,000.
Air Force One Flight Deck Recording (Side 1)
Air Force One Flight Deck Recording (Side 2)
Image via Wikipedia
