In a forest about 15 miles outside of Portland, Oregon, Bruce Campbell owns a retired Boeing 747 that he calls home. And for the past 20 years, he’s been living in the commercial jet.
Campbell bought the retired plane in 1999 for $100,000 and made it his mission to make the plane habitable. As a retired electrical engineer, Campbell worked on the place to install electrical, water and sewer systems. His jet home includes a living space, kitchen, two working bathrooms, a shower (which Campbell refers to as “primitive” but still functional) and a workspace. Old planes usually get retired and recycled. Campbell wondered, why not “up cycle” instead and scrapping the metal and building new planes? Now that Campbell has done it himself, he provides a detailed guide on his website as to how one can acquire and update their own jet plane home to live in. Campbell is even working on a second airplane home, what he calls an “aerospace technology castle” to be built in Kyushu, Japan. He hopes the aero-home will work not only as a home but perhaps as a tsunami lifeboat for the community when needed.