Man who bought Elvis Presley’s jet is rebuilding it in a new way
- Elvis Presley’s jet spent four decades rotting away in the desert
- It would over $5 million to fix it
- In terms of regulations, the jet would never get the green light with IATA
Published on Nov 17, 2023 at 6:04 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Nov 20, 2023 at 10:22 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
The guys who bought Elvis Presley’s jet at auction for $234,000 desperately wanted it to fly again.
But, for a number of reasons, this is not going to happen.
So he came up with a different plan.
READ MORE! Man who bought Elvis Presley’s private jet tries to power it up for first time in 40 years
There’s a long list of reasons to explain why Elvis Presley’s jet will never see the clouds again.
The 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar owned by one of history’s greatest rock stars spent four decades rotting away in the desert.
This, as you can imagine, took a heavy toll.
The first issue is, as ever, about money.
After buying it at auction, James Web from Jimmy’s World managed to power it up for the first time in decades.
However a further inspection revealed the insane costs of actually bringing it back to life for more than five minutes.
It cost roughly $230,000 to get the plane to start again.
But when the total cost required was revealed to Jimmy, he nearly had a heart attack.
All in all, you’re looking at a $5.7 million bill.
The plane needs four new engines, at around half a million each, and rewiring the electronics alone cost nearly $2 million.
| To fix | Cost |
| Plane inspection | $80,000 |
| Non-destruction tests – (checking for cracks etc) | $20,000 |
| Stripping the paint, sealing, and sanding | $120,000 |
| Fixing corrosion of the aircraft | $75,000 |
| Flight controls | $450,000 |
| Landing gear | $360,000 |
| Brakes | $24,000 |
| Fuel tanks | $10,000 |
| Rewiring the electronics | $1.5 million |
| APU (mini jet engine) | $180,000 |
| Miscellaneous (hoses, screws, fittings) | $100,000 |
| JT212 engines (four of them) | $2.2 million |
| Flight testing | $100,000 |
| Airworthy directives | $450,000 |
| Total | $5.7 million |
Even if Jimmy had the $5.7 million required, the plane could never fly again for the most logical of reasons: safety.
As you can imagine, nearly every rule and regulation that applied forty years ago doesn’t apply anymore.
Everything’s changed.
For an extremely long list of reasons, the jet would never get a greenlight from IATA, the global entity that regulates aviation.
With that in mind, Jimmy came up with a few different ideas, and eventually he decided his best bet would be to turn the jet into a luxury RV.
Stay tuned for more.
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