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Boeing living: Oregon man resides in salvaged plane

Cost of vehicle, land totalled $126K

A Boeing 727 and Hillsboro, OR (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, National Air & Space Museum)
A Boeing 727 and Hillsboro, OR (Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty, National Air & Space Museum)

A fear of flying is relatively common. Less common is a desire to live in a plane that can no longer fly, which is where an Oregon electrical engineer is shacking up.

Bruce Campbell, 73, is living in the shell of a salvaged Boeing 727 jetliner, CNBC Make It reported. The plane sits on a 10-acre tract of land in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland.

Decades after Campbell purchased the land in the 1970s for $26,000, he set about pursuing his childhood dream of living in a plane. In 1999, he hired a salvage company to hunt for a plane, a decision he called a “Whopper class mistake.”

Regardless, the company found him a 200-seat plane in Greece after months of searching. Campbell paid $100,000 for the 1,066-square-foot, 70,000-pound plane, racking up an additional $20,000 in expenses to remove the engines and make the plane unflyable.

After the plane was sent to the United States and towed through the downtown streets of Hillsboro, Campbell started renovating to make it more owner-friendly. The two-year process cost $15,000 as Campbell installed a makeshift shower, temporary sink, portable washing machine, refrigerator and food service cart, the latter of which serves as a pantry.

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Other “amenities” include a microwave, toaster oven, workbench and futon sofa, which is where Campbell sleeps.

If the aesthetics don’t motivate people to pursue plane living, perhaps the price tag will. Campbell’s expenses add up to only $320 a month, split between property taxes and electricity.

“I have no regrets about pursuing this vision,” Campbell told the publication.

In addition to living in one of the more unusual properties in the country, Campbell is also living in a vessel of national history. In 1975, his plane was utilized to transport the remains of the airline’s owner, Aristotle Onassis, the shipping magnate who was married to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at his time of death.

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— Holden Walter-Warner

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Architecture And Design