Celebrities

The whole story of how a man bought Elvis’ private jet at an auction and converting it into an RV to drive

  • This man bought Elvis Presley’s abandoned private jet
  • Since it was impossible to make it fly he made it into an RV
  • Take a look at the video below to see how it looked

Published on Jan 08, 2025 at 5:04 PM (UTC+4)
by Nalin Rawat

Last updated on Jan 08, 2025 at 5:04 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

This man bought Elvis’ private jet, a 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar that had been abandoned for nearly four decades, and turned it into an RV.

Owned by one of history’s greatest rock stars, the jet was abandoned for 35 years in Roswell, New Mexico.

It was eventually put to auction and bought for $234,000.

However, the cost of restoring it was millions of dollars.

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Converting Elvis’ private jet into an RV

YouTuber Jimmy Webb, who bought Elvis’ private jet, wanted to know how much it would cost to restore the plane.

However, the estimated cost was well around $6 million even after which he couldn’t fly the plane as it had noise regulation compliance issues.

The-whole-story-of-how-a-man-bought-Elvis-private-jet-at-an-auction-and-converting-it-into-an-RV-to-drive
Jimmy’s World

So he decided to take a different route by turning it into an RV.

He documented the whole process of the conversion on his YouTube channel.

The interior of the jet was easy to fix but the real challenge was getting rid of the components needed to fly.

Interestingly, Elvis owned not one but two Lockheed JetStars in his fleet of private jets.

Cost of the build

This-man-bought-Elvis'-private-jet-and-turned-it-into-an-RV
Jimmy’s World

Fortunately, Webb found an abandoned RV that fit the plane perfectly.

Eventually, the total cost of the build was over $360,000, including the purchase of the jet.

Webb had also repurposed parts of Elvis’ private jet into memorabilia and put them on sale, which saved him around $100,000.

However, they also faced a lot of challenges, such as fabricating tools for proprietary parts.

Once the RV was finished, Webb took it to different shows around the US.

The Elvis’ private jet turned RV attracted a lot of attention and support from fans of Elvis and aviation history.

Watching the vehicle come together over the last two years was also quite an adventure.

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Nalin started his career by working with various national newspapers in India. He has also worked as a writer/editor for many popular websites, while still pursuing his journalism and mass communication degree. Working as a digital nomad has allowed him to inform and educate through his work. When he is not writing, you can find him playing video games or travelling the mountains on his bike.