Inhabitants of aircraft (Boeing type)

After losing her home in a fire, Jo Ann Ussery (pictured above) had a strange idea: live on an airplane.

He bought an old Boeing 727. In the end, he had a fully functional house, with more than 140 square meters of living space, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a hot tub – where the cockpit used to be. All for less than 30 thousand dollars at the time, about 60 thousand dollars (57 thousand euros) in today’s money.

Usseri — a beautician from Benoit, Mississippi — had no professional connection to aviation and followed the whimsical advice of her brother-in-law, an air traffic controller. He lived in the plane from 1995 to 1999, when it fell off a truck that was being transported to another nearby site and was damaged beyond repair, where it would be on display to the public.

Although he was not the first person to live in flight, his ambitious plan had an inspiring effect. In the late 1990s, Bruce Campbell, an electrical engineer with a private pilot’s license, was struck by his story: “I went home and asked. [a rádio] And they had Jo Ann’s story, and it was a wonder I didn’t end up on the road because my focus was entirely on her. I was on the phone the next morning,” he says.

A 727 in the jungle

Campbell has now flown his own plane — a Boeing 727 — for more than 20 years, living in the woods of Hillsboro, Oregon: “I’m constantly leaning on Jo Ann’s shoulder and am grateful for the proof of concept.” He doesn’t regret anything: “I wouldn’t live in a regular house. No. If Scotty [personagem da série de TV Star Trek] If you take me to Inner Mongolia, erase my fingerprints, and force me to live in a conventional structure, I’ll do whatever it takes to survive — but other than that, for me it’s always the jet.”

That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have done anything differently: “I made a lot of mistakes, one of which was very serious: partnering with an insurance company. Other than that, using better transport logistics would have kept the costs down,” he explains.

His project cost a total of 220 thousand dollars (about 380 thousand dollars or 360 thousand euros in today’s money), half of which went to buy the plane. He says the plane belonged to Olympic Airways in Greece and was used to carry the remains of the airline’s tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, in 1975: “At the time, I didn’t know the history of the plane . . . and that it had an old, 707-style interior. Modern.” It was terrible compared to the quality. Functional, but it was old and basic. Probably a bad choice for a house.”

As a result, Campbell had to work in aviation for a few years to make ends meet. The interiors are simple, with a rustic shower made from a plastic cylinder and a couch for a bed. During the harshest part of winter, Campbell traditionally retreats to the city of Miyazaki in southern Japan, which has a subtropical climate, where he maintains a small apartment. But the epidemic has made it difficult, and for the past three years he has been living on 727 all year round.

He says he almost bought a second plane — a 747-400 — with the intention of establishing an airline home in Japan in 2018, but the deal was canceled at the last minute because the airline (Campbell didn’t disclose) decided. The plane was in service longer than expected: “We had to suspend the project, and it remains so to this day,” he says.

Campbell often welcomes visitors and offers free accommodation on the plane, while in the summer it organizes large public events with fun fairs: “Artists dance on the right wing, guests dance in front of or behind the wing, in the forest. Big concerts are filled with all kinds of entertainment, they are not Disneyland class – Small booths with different interests and small hobbies, but they are fun”.

Double fuse

If living in one plane is already a luxury, how about living in two? This is Joe Oxline’s project with an MD-80 and DC-9 on a plot of land in Brookshire, Texas, USA. Oxline has lived in the MD-80 for more than a decade — after getting divorced on April Fools’ Day 2011 — and plans to renovate the DC-8 and equip it with recreation areas such as a movie theater and music room. He calls his grand scheme “Project Freedom”.

“I’m a quarter of a million dollars short of the whole project,” says Oxline, adding that because he owns the land and built his own water well and sewer system, running costs are minimal: “What else do I have? No electricity.”

For years, she shared the plane with her children: “The kids are gone, so I am. We live in a house and we have a lot of space, but it’s all wasted space. My master bedroom is 3m by 6m which is not a bad size for a bedroom. I have two televisions and There’s plenty of room to move around at will. My living room is a good size, the dining room seats four, they can cook enough for a party come home, I also have a bathroom and toilet so I don’t have to get off the plane to go to the bathroom, the only windows open when I’m not at home. ” he explains, and he opens the plane’s doors to let in fresh air.

The planes are visible from nearby roads, and many drivers – piqued by their curiosity – pass by, Oxline says: “I have three or four people every day. I call them my tourists,” he says. They drive by and say, “That’s really cool. Most of the time, I wave to them. I say to them, “If you have a moment, I’ll give you a tour. If I don’t make the bed that day, what is it? Let’s see how people really live.”

Oxline was interested in a Boeing 747 — a plane owner’s ultimate dream to live in the “Queen of the Skies” — but decided against it when faced with transportation costs: “The plane costs about $300,000. [284 mil euros]But the cost of transportation is 500 thousand dollars [473 mil euros]. Half a million dollars to carry it. This is because you can’t drive it on the roads, you have to pick it up, cut it up, slice it and dice it up and put it back together.”

DIY airplanes

There are other notable examples of airplanes being converted into houses. One of the oldest is a Boeing 307 Stratoliner owned by billionaire and film director Howard Hughes, who spent a fortune remodeling the interior to turn it into a “flying penthouse”. After being damaged by a hurricane, it was converted into a luxury motor yacht and eventually purchased in the 1980s by Florida resident Dave Trimmer, who extensively renovated it and named it “The Cosmic Muffin”. [o bolo queque cósmico]. He lived in the plane-boat hybrid for 20 years before donating it to the Florida Air Museum in 2018.

Red Lane, an American country singer and Nashville Hall of Famer who was formerly an airplane mechanic, lived for decades in a converted DC-8 that he salvaged from the scrapyard in the late 1970s. Lane, who died in 2015, did not. Regrets: “I never woke up in this place wishing I was somewhere else,” he revealed in a 2006 TV interview.

Those looking to spend a night or two on a flight home have some options in the form of hotels; In Costa Rica, the Costa Verde Hotel features a completely refurbished Boeing 727 – with two bedrooms and a terrace overlooking the sea; In Sweden, Jumbo Stay is a hotel built inside a Boeing 747 located on the grounds of Stockholm Arlanda Airport. If you want to host a party, another Boeing 747 can be chartered for events of up to 220 people at Cotswold Airport in England, 100 miles west of London.

However, if you want to leave the intermediate shelter and fully embrace life inside an airframe, you have to be prepared for the challenges: “You have to have the passion to want to do this, because there are so many problems. If the biggest obstacle is to solve it,” says Joe Oxline.

Maybe that’s why, over the years, many visitors to Bruce Campbell are interested in adopting this lifestyle, but no one has been able to turn the dream into reality: “I think it’s very difficult for people: some of my guests convinced them. I wanted to do it, and I gave them clear instructions to help them step by step. sent, but none of them could set the pace,” he says.

But don’t let that discourage you, Campbell adds: “My main advice is don’t let anyone shake your faith. Do all the logistics and just do it.”