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The Boeing 727-200 Airplane Home
Alien54 writes "As seen at AirplaneHomes.com: 'We are offering a B727-200 aircraft for reuse as a home. It is our intention to deliver and set the airplane up on a column and bearing arrangement so it weathervanes. We have tried to define what we consider a "basic" airplane home. This project has all the complexities of a normal home and we will try to deliver and install it to the buyers needs, within the following limitations.' Be sure to also check out the owner's flight manual for more technical details."
During high winds, wouldnt the natural lift of the wings put stress on the column holding it down?
This
Out in California, there are mammoth junk yards of nothing but a century of airplanes gone to waste. Many are used for movies, stripped for spare parts, and so forth, but it's good that they're finally being used to provide shelter.
However, $300,000 is a bit steep, though it's a nice novelty item. Instead of selling them to the eccentric, the planes out in the junk yards of California should be given away converted into homeless shelters and low-income housing using the company's swivel technology.
This has to be one of the stupidest house ideas I've ever seen. I've seen aircraft being turned into diners, railroad cars being added on to places, but to use an old 727 as a house/windvane? It's hideous! Your neighbors would probably hate you. Birds would fear your house. And god forbid you live in a place that gets hurricanes. Yipes!
On the other hand, their other auction is pretty cool.
Domain Name: AIRPLANEHOMES.COM
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 16-Oct-2002.
Record expires on 16-Oct-2003.
Record Created on 16-Oct-2002.
or is that picture obviously photoshopped?
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Im not sure that pic above works if not then go to http://www.airplanehomes.com/twa1.jpg and check that shit out. That a horrible excuse for a photoshop. I've seen better at www.fark.com
Too bad these beauties weren't for sale a few years back when various individuals were so freaked out by the Y2K scare that they built undergound shelters in the woods.
Sure, the airplane reminds me of my old railroad appt. in NYC, but it sure beats the school bus David Koresh had buried in his backyard as a bunker.
--- have you healed your church website?
Is anyone else entertained by the fact that this is made available by "Max Power Aerospace, Inc."?
I couldn't tell if you were experimenting with poor-man's cryogenics or looking for the orange sherbet.
To be honest, if I had that kind of money, I might be more inclined to buy a functioning MIG 21 ;-)
From the bottom of the ebay auction page:
A functioning cockpit can be installed, based on the Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is offered by a third party and is in the $10,000 area.
Um. Says it all really ...
As to missile silo home - it's interesting whether Russians took notice that it's now someone's home and removed this place from their SS-20s target list.
Just couldn't resist...
A couple people have compared this "airplane home" to the concept of silo homes. The difference between the two is that a silo home has tons of usable space. I would jump at the chance to have a home built on top of an old silo, which effectively serves as an enourmous basement. Forget the paranoid bomb shelter aspect (although, it's only funny until bombs start dropping), think of the square footage. Especially if you could get one cheap a government auction. I once saw a guy on one of those "unusual home" shows on TLC or something, that bought a silo at auction for $40,000.
One of these airplane homes goes for what - $300,000? - and you're getting 1200 sq feet of living space. I'd pay that for an apartment off Central Park West or something, but for a plane on a stick? Eh, I think not.
From their FAQ-
Does Russia still have this site as a target?
NO. This Atlas-F Series was finished before the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty). The Russians knew these sites were already obsolete and decommissioned.
After a bit of digging around at SiloMan's coordinates page, it appears that that particular site is just off of Route 3 near Clayburg, NY, and can be seen in a 1995 aerial photo on Terraserver.
--was living in florida for a short time frame in the 70's. Some guy there (st pete beach) had a GREAT mod, he took an airplane, took the wings off, added two pontoons to it, had this nice catamaran. It was some flavor large commercial plane, but no idea the make/model. It was just too dang slick.
I don't understand how these things would be hurricane proof.
An airplane like a 727 can handle 500+ mph "winds", because that's how fast it moves through the air when it's flying. However, that is smooth airflow along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft.
One of these sitting close to the ground would be subject to changing winds from all directions. During a hurricane, as the winds eddied wildy over the ground's surface, it'd be similar to flying into severe turbulence.
Obviously, being able to weather-vane would have the thing pointed predominantly into the wind, but that pivot point would have to absorb the energy of any lateral and vertical components of the wind striking the aircraft.
It seems to be a pretty bold claim, with little or no research to back it.
The cool thing would be that all your expense goes into ambience -- go for that classy old Pam Am style, and maybe have the maitre 'd wear a leather jacket. If the food sucks, hey, so what, your customers will be expecting that anyway -- as long as they're being charged less than a hundred bucks for the experience of getting out alive with a full stomach, they'll leave happy.
Dammit it could work, all you need to do is find places in or near major cities & you could start a chain to rival Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood. Zoning laws could be an issue, but hey in that case just stay out of New England at first -- I know of placed in Smyrna Tennessee & Florence South Carolina that would be happy to help get you started...
tee hee :)
And before anyone goes knocking these people for being crackpots to sell airplane homes (hey, I think it's a fun idea but I know damn well I could never talk my fiance into it :), check out their last auction: 2.1 million dollars to sell an ICBM silo home. Yow!
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
The WIND SHIFTS...! Oh I can see it now, I'm going down my stairs, headed for work on a blustery day, and then a 40 mph wind takes a 45 to 90 degree shift. Gee, I'm gonna love trying to explain this one to my health insurance agent. "Ya see sir my house is designed to rotate in the wind, and well it was a very windy day...."(health insurance agent tries to keep from snickering out loud while reaching for the record but and waving the rest of the claims agents over). Not to mention that if the area where you live is particularly wind does that mean that essentially everything in the house has to be bolted down or secured in some way?
Oh ya, can survive a hurricane, but don't trying this in the tornado belt.... And you thought this plane would never fly?
I'd like to see the disclaimer on this guys contract.
And the scary thing is... Someone bought one and is actually living in it?!?!
O'k, guess it takes all kinds. In situations such as these - please refer to my sig.
I used to live in Kingman, Az. There is a large airport there that was used during WWII that has long runways. There was also a company at the airport that flew decommissioned planes in and stripped all saleable parts. There were always more than a dozen planes there.
/. is about sharing ideas, so if you've got the resources, have at it. Just be sure to post some pics and an URL. If someone actually does this I sure would like to see it - either option.
I had the idea back then that I might be able to buy a stripped fuselage for the scrap value. Never did find out how much that would be, but I had some ideas about how to use one of them as a home. I would like to have been able to buy one of the widebodies. I never thought about putting one up on a post to swivel, but the following are two ideas that I had.
First, I thought that I might coat the exterior to prevent corrosion, remove all wings and stabalizers and bury it. Not completely, but about 80 - 90%, just enough so that I could put skylights along the length of the top. Using an L-1011 for example (interior dimensions of 18' x 135'), would give over 2400 square feet of living area not counting any of the below-deck stuff like luggage, galley, or storage areas.
It would already have bathroom facilities (well, toilet and sink anyway, you'd have to add a full bath somewhere) and a heating/cooling system. The 18' width would also give more options for the layout of rooms and other divided areas. This would be earth-sheltered and since (I believe) these are well insulated, it would not require much heating and cooling.
Entry would be through a stairwell down to any entry door one would choose, or, with the right lot, maybe the terrain would provide for a ground level entry with the rest of the structure earth-sheltered. I figured that it could be done for not much more than a conventional home.
The second idea was a little more involved but would make for a real artistic curiosity. Purchase the aircraft including wings and all stabalizers. Purchase a piece of land which is a hillside, preferably which breaks on two sides. Land of this type is somewhat less desirable than a flat piece which is easy to build on so it would likely be cheaper. This might be hard to visualize, but I'm no artist, so the concept is only in my head. This will all make sense at the end of the description.
Make most of the living space of your home inside the hill, underground. Hollow out living areas, make sure it is supported just like a horizontal shaft mine - think NORAD but without the bomb shelter capacity (unless you've got a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket.)
The primary shaft would be on both sides of the hillside and then another perpendicular to the first shaft. Cut loose the front section of the fuselage with the cockpit and put it in one end. Cut loose the tail with the vertical and horizontal stabalizers and put in the other end. Have a doorway out of the perpedicular shaft and anchor one of the wings (appropriate one) at the door and supported horizontally out into the air away from the hillside.
The end result is to have it appear that the entire aircraft is imbedded in the hillside. The wing is a patio, the cockpit could be a breakfast nook and the tail could house the bathrooms and heating/cooling equipment, etc. If the terrain were right, you could even have a pool partially shaded from the sun under the wing.
I had the idea back in a time when the feds weren't under republican control, so I figured I might even be able to get a National Endowment for the Arts grant or maybe even a National Science Foundation grant to defray some of the cost, as this would be much more costly than the first option.
Well,
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?