Oregon engineer spent $100,000 on a retired Boeing 727 and turned it into a home
Why Bruce Campbell chose to live inside a retired jetliner How the aircraft was transported and rebuilt in Oregon What life looks like inside the
Why Bruce Campbell chose to live inside a retired jetliner How the aircraft was transported and rebuilt in Oregon What life looks like inside the converted 727 Poll Vote & Share your view Do you think living in a decommissioned aircraft is a viable housing option? Yes, definitely No, it's impractical 3k+ users shared opinion today 5k+ users already voted today 3k+ users shared opinion today Share Opinion Why Campbell wants to change how retired aircraft are treated In 1999, retired electrical engineer Bruce Campbell paid 100,000 dollars for a decommissioned Boeing 727-200 that had spent its working life flying for Olympic Airways in Greece, then had the aircraft flown to Oregon and hauled in pieces to a wooded property near Hillsboro, where it was reassembled and slowly converted into his home. More than two decades later, Campbell still lives inside the aircraft's roughly 1,066 square foot cabin and flight deck, a space that retains much of its original cockpit, wiring and structural design. What began as one engineer's unconventional housing experiment has since turned into a long-running personal project and public attraction, one that Campbell hopes will encourage others to see decommissioned aircraft as usable buildings rather than scrap.Campbell, who trained as an electrical engineer and worked in building services and environmental engineering, has said his decision to live inside an aircraft grew out of a long-standing fascination with aeronautical design.
According to his own account on Airplane Home, the website documenting his project, Campbell has argued that aircraft represent a far more advanced and durable form of construction than a conventional wood framed house, built to withstand extreme pressure, speed and structural stress in ways ordinary residential buildings never need to.Before buying the 727, Campbell had spent years living simply and avoiding debt, deliberately saving money so that he could eventually purchase a home outright rather than take on a mortgage. His interest in aircraft as living spaces was also shaped by earlier examples of similar conversions, including a Boeing 727 that another owner had turned into a lakeside home in Mississippi during the 1990s, an example that helped convince Campbell his own version of the idea was achievable.Moving a retired jetliner from a foreign airport to a rural property was itself a significant undertaking. The aircraft was flown from Athens to the Portland Hillsboro Airport before being disassembled, with its wings removed for transport, then towed piece by piece to Campbell's land and reassembled on site, wings reattached, in what had previously been a walnut orchard. Beyond the roughly 100,000 dollars Campbell paid for the aircraft itself, he spent significant additional funds transporting the plane and preparing a site to temporarily house it during the move.Once in place, Campbell began the slow process of converting the aircraft's interior into a livable space, work that has continued for more than two decades.
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