A lot of people want to have a unique home. They want their house to be one-of-a-kind and to have it as something special that no one else has ever seen. There aren't a lot of people who will actually go out of their way to make this happen, but Bruce Campbell wasn't like other people.
As a former electrical engineer, this Oregon man realized that his passion for aircrafts could be used to help him make something truly unique. He took a Boeing 727 and turned it into his home.
He started by purchasing the large jet in 1999 for $100,000. He moved the plane into a small forest where he started to work on it. Slowly but surely, he was able to convert the jet into a comfortable living space.
The airplane is propped up on pillars so that it is sturdy and leveled. Campbell wanted to keep as many of the aspects of the plane as possible. He kept most the instrumentation of the cockpit even though it obviously isn't needed, but he just likes how it looks. The cockpit is kept mostly in tact, but operates as his entertainment room.
It's still a work in progress, but it's already really impressive.
He's done a lot of really cool things with the plane to make it livable. His reasoning for starting this awesome project are pretty interesting...
"It's a great toy. Trick doors, trick floors. Hatches here, latches there, clever gadgets everywhere. Cool interior lights, awesome exterior lights, sleek gleaming appearance, titanium ducts, Star Trek movies in a Star Trek like setting. It's a constant exploratory adventure, ever entertaining, providing fundamental sustenance for a[n] old technology nerd like me. Having lots of little toys is very fulfilling. Having lots of little toys enclosed in a very big toy is nirvana."
Campbell can live in his airplane house for about six months of the year. He has been using the other six months to travel to Japan. He actually wants to recreate this project and build himself a second airplane house in Japan!
Other than the initial investment, Campbell has put about $120,000 into the renovations. He was happy to have designed this project, and feels like he was able to save the plane from being scrapped. "Retirement into an aerospace class castle should be every jetliner's constructive fate. They should never be mindlessly scrapped. Shredding a beautiful and scintillating jetliner is a tragedy in waste, and a profound failure of human imagination," Campbell said.
"Jetliners are masterful works of aerospace science, and their superlative engineering grace is unmatched by any other structures people can live within...They're incredibly strong, durable, and long lived. And they easily withstand any earthquake or storm. Their interior is easy to keep immaculately clean because they are sealed pressure canisters."
He feels like his home is built to last, and that building out of the usual supplies isn't worth it. "To me it makes no sense at all to destroy the finest structures available and then turn around and build homes out of materials which are fundamentally little better than pressed cardboard, using ancient and inferior design and building methods."
It's taken a long time and a lot of work, but Bruce Campbell can absolute say his home is completely unique. Would you ever live in an airplane?
