Home Sweet Airplane

Nothing bugs veteran airline pilot Tom Bennington more than having to tear apart an airplane. That’s why he’s transforming Boeing 727s into practical living spaces. Yes, that’s right—living spaces, as in homes.

Each airplane home costs about $285,000. Bennington’s company, Max Power Aerospace, buys the plane and ships it to its final destination. The engines, landing gear and flight controls are removed. The company then will send an architect or general contractor to survey, inspect and secure permits for installation on the site.

Bennington secured his first U.S. patent for the airplane home in 1997. He said nothing about the technology used for the homes is new, but his patents cover an aircraft stationed on a bearing that is used as a dwelling.

The empty airplane weighs about 45,000 pounds. The outside is about 153 feet long and the inside is about 12 feet wide. In total, there are about 1,200 square feet of living space.
The airplane comes with 106 windows.

Bennington believes airplanes are the best-made structures around. He’s broken the jaws of an industrial excavator while attempting to crush airplanes.
Peters set up a Web site, Airplanehomes.com, where people can learn how the planes are stripped, shipped and set up for living spaces. The pictures are artists’ renderings of how a completed structure would look.

—Inman News