After her house burned down, a strange idea came to Jo Ann Ussery’s mind: What if she could live in a plane!
She bought a Boeing 727 that was being sold for scrap, moved it to a piece of land she owned, spent 6 months preparing it and did most of the work herself.
When she was finished, the plane was a habitable home, with a total area of about 1,500 square feet, containing three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a bathtub in place of the cockpit. All of this cost about $30,000, or about $60,000 at current prices.
Osiri, who works in the field of beautification, has no connection to the world of aviation, but was following strange advice from her brother-in-law, who works as a ground controller at the airport.
Jo Ann Oseary inside her residence (Getty)
She lived in the plane for 4 years from 1995 to 1999, before the plane crashed when it fell from the truck while being transported from one place to another.
Although Jo Ann was not the first person to inhabit an airplane, her story inspired others to do the same. As CNN reported, at the end of the nineties. “I was driving my car and listening to the radio, and they were playing Jo Ann’s story, and it was so amazing that it took my entire focus while driving,” says Ross Campbell, an electrical engineer who holds a private pilot’s license.
727 plane in the middle of the forest
Campbell now lives in his plane, a Boeing 727, in the woods of Hillsboro, Oregon. “I still support Jo Ann, and I’m grateful to her,” he says. I will never live in a normal house again. will not happen”. His project cost about $220,000 (about $390,000 in today’s prices), about half of which went toward purchasing the plane.
Hotel Costa Verde has a refurbished Boeing 727 with two bedrooms (hotel website)
Campbell points out that the plane belonged to Olympic Airlines in Greece, and was used to transport the body of the company’s owner, the famous businessman Aristotle Onassis, in 1975.
He added: “At the time I bought it, I did not know that the plane had a story, and I did not know that the inside was built on the old 707 model, and it was very bad compared to newer models of planes. “It was practical but it looked old, so maybe it wasn’t the best choice to turn it into a home.”
The plane took several years of work before it was habitable. It was a primitive interior, with a sofa for sleeping and a shower made of plastic pipe. During the harsh winter times, Campbell used to stay in a small apartment he owned in Miyazaki, Japan, but due to the pandemic, he was no longer able to go there and lived inside the 727 plane all year round.
Jumbo Stay Hotel is built entirely inside a Boeing 747 plane (hotel page on Facebook)
Campbell intended to buy another plane, a 747, to turn it into a home in Japan, but the deal fell through at the last minute when the airline backed out of selling the plane and decided to keep it in service for another period, he said.
Campbell usually receives visitors, and sometimes invites them to stay on the plane for free. In the summer, he organizes larger public concerts. He says: “The artists perform on the right wing of the plane, while the guests dance in front or behind the wing.”
One plane is not enough
If you think life in a plane is overkill, how about two planes? Joe Axlin, who owns two MD-80s and a DC-9, plans to implement his “Project Freedom” plan by placing the two planes next to each other on a plot of land he owns in Brookshire, Texas.
Jumbo Stay Hotel is built entirely inside a Boeing 747 plane (hotel page on Facebook)
Axlin has already lived for a decade in the MD-80 and plans to retrofit the DC-8 and provide it with entertainment areas such as a home theater. “I only have a quarter of a million dollars to invest in the project,” Axlin explains, noting that his budget is limited because he owns the plot of land, and he digs It has a water well and he created a sewage system himself. He stressed: “There is nothing left but electricity.”
He continues: “I have a lot of space. The master bedroom is 3 x 5 meters and has two TVs and space to move around. The living room is a good size, I have a dining room with 4 chairs, and enough room to cook for several people. I also have a bathroom and shower, what I’m missing here is a window that can be opened and closed. “I have to open the plane door to let in fresh air.”
Axlin dreamed of owning a Boeing 747 to live in, which he called the “Queen of the Skies,” but he gave up his dream because of the cost. He says: “The plane itself will cost $300,000, but transporting it alone will cost $500,000.” Half a million dollars just to move it here. Its size is large and cannot be transported on the road. It must be cut into parts, dismantled, then transported and reassembled again.
Jumbo Stay Hotel is built entirely inside a Boeing 747 plane (hotel page on Facebook)
There are other planes that have been turned into homes. One of the first models of the Boeing 307 was owned by billionaire and famous film director Howard Hughes. He spent huge sums of money on it to turn it into a flying house. After it was severely damaged as a result of a hurricane, it was converted into a yacht. In the 1980s, Dave Diemer, from Florida, bought the yacht and lived in it for 20 years before donating it to the Florida Aviation Museum in 2018.
Country singer Red Lynn, who previously worked as an aircraft mechanic and died in 2015, also lived in a DC-8 plane that was converted into a house, which he acquired from a junkyard in the 1970s. “I never thought about living in another house,” Lin said in a television interview in 2006.
Hotel Costa Verde has a refurbished Boeing 727 with two bedrooms (hotel website)
You can enjoy the experience of staying on an airplane for a night or two, as there are hotels that offer you this experience. In Costa Rica, Hotel Costa Verde has a renovated Boeing 727 with two bedrooms overlooking the ocean.
In Sweden, the Jumbo Stay hotel is built entirely inside a Boeing 747 on the grounds of Stockholm Arlanda Airport.
If you want to hold a party, there is a Boeing 747 for rent with a capacity of 220 people at Cotswold Airport in England, 100 miles west of London.
