Donald Trump flies mostly in his private Boeing 757 (which the campaign rents from the candidate). For short hops to small cities he also has a Cessna that required some administrative sleight of hand to keep legal.

His running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, will be flying a charted Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-700 registration N278EA.

Source: Eastern Airlines

Eastern is a small Miami-based charter carrier, focused on flights to Cuba and the Caribbean, whose strangest asset is its name — that of the major US airline founded in 1926, headed by World War I pilot Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and later by astronaut Frank Borman before being acquired by Frank Lorenzo. The airline was shut down amidst financial and labor struggles in 1991.

The ‘new Eastern Airlines’ has four Boeing 737-800s, and just a single 737-700, outfitted in an all business class (64 seats) configuration. Since the 737-700 is what Governor Pence will be flying, it’s easy to trace the provenance of that particular aircraft.

In fact only days earlier the plane was decorated with Star Trek Beyond livery.

Source: Eastern Airlines

The plane was originally delivered in 1998 and operated by Danish airline Maersk Air and Danish carrier Sterling Airlines in 148 seat all-coach configuration before it was flown by Russia’s Moskovia Airlines.

Vice Presidential candidates usually get lesser planes than the candidate at the top of the ticket. For instance,

• Mitt Romney flew an MD83 that had previously been chartered by the band U2. While Paul Ryan flew in a 1970 DC-9.

• John McCain flew a Boeing 737 while Sarah Palin was stuck in a regional jet (a JetBlue Embraer ERJ-190).

With an all business class 737, Pence is doing better than his recent Republican predecessors (in terms of comfort, at least).

(HT: Dan R.)