Bruce Campbell is an inventive engineer who bought a retired Boeing 727 aircraft fuselage and upcycled it into an unusual and innovative home. The huge 3-engine commercial airliner is propped up on concrete pillars in a suburban wooded area outside of Portland, Oregon, and has its own driveway.
The aircraft features a makeshift shower, but he is still working to install a working lavatory and to restore some of the plane’s original interior elements, like seating and lights. Campbell lives in this plane 6 months every year, and spends the other part of the year in Japan, where he is also looking to buy and similarly re-use a retired Boeing 747 fuselage. The 10 acres where he’s building his Oregon home cost $23,000 when he bought them in his 20s, and the plane set him back $220,000.
“Retirement into an aerospace class castle should be every jetliner’s constructive fate. They should never be mindlessly scrapped” – said Bruce Campbell, the aircraft’s owner (and resident).
“Shredding a beautiful and scintillating jetliner is a tragedy in waste, and a profound failure of human imagination”
“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”
“You need to acquire two things: An airliner, and suitable land to host it”
“Then you need to transport your airliner to your land. That’s the most daunting challenge”
