Man Buys Elvis’ 1962 Private Jet to Create Most Coveted RV of All Time
Talk about traveling in style.
A YouTuber has plans to convert a private jet once owned by Elvis Presley into a recreational vehicle.
Airplane enthusiast James Webb, who restores and sells old aircraft (YouTube channel “Jimmy’s World“), has transported the 1962 Lockheed JetStar to Florida for the transformation, according to WTVT-TV in Tampa.
The aircraft’s been abandoned in a Roswell, New Mexico, facility for roughly 40 years, Fox reported, after it fell into disuse after “the King’s” untimely death in 1977.
Elvis had acquired the jet in 1976, less than a year before his passing at the age of 42.
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Presley purchased the plane for $840,000, according to Fox. That’s about $4.5 million in 2023 dollars, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
Webb paid $234,000 for the decrepit jet at a January auction.
“It was the biggest financial purchase I have ever made, outside of a house, and this was ironically more expensive than my house,” Webb told WTVT.
“How crazy is that?”
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He’s planning on touring the nation for charity fundraising in the renovated RV-jet creation.
“We’re going to take an RV chassis, take the house part of the RV off, put [the plane] on that, so this can be the ‘Elvis Experience,’” Webb said, according to WTVT.
Photos of the jet’s interior shows furnishings one might expect in a movie set in the 1960s.
Elvis Presley’s private jet, complete with velvet chairs, goes up for auction. It’s been sitting in the New Mexico desert for 30 years. Starting bid is $100,000. pic.twitter.com/xrq1q0Zkyu
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) August 2, 2022
“Jimmy’s World” explored the rotted interior of the ancient aircraft in a February video — questioning whether dropping $234,000 on the relic was a good idea.
The jet’s undergoing renovations for its new life as a roadster in a hangar in Plant City, Florida, about 25 miles west of Tampa.
Webb recorded some of the permanent alterations to the aircraft in a video published Sunday — including the process of removing its tail assembly for the plane’s conversion into an RV.
The aircraft wasn’t the only plane that Elvis owned during his lifetime. The rock and roll legend had also owned two other planes he acquired earlier in his music career, according to Fox News.
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