Texas designer transforms Boeing Business Jet 787-8 from a flying palace to something even more profound
Published on Jun 11, 2025 at 4:50 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Jun 11, 2025 at 9:15 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
A designer from Texas turned this Boeing Business Jet 787-8 into something that can rival most luxury hotels.
It doesn’t even look like the cabin of a plane.
More like an airport lounge or a lounge bar.
There is a catch, though.
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Natalie Rodriguez, a designer from San Antonio, Texas, reinvented a Boeing Business Jet 787-8 by turning it into a five-star hotel lounge.
Dubbed the ‘Solrise concept’, the aircraft looks like something out of a James Bond movie.
We can totally envision the next James Bond ordering something ‘shaken, not stirred’ here on his way to some unnamed country to save the world.
In terms of colors, Rodriguez used bronze and champagne gold as a canvas for her project, and then spruced it up with orange and green furniture.
Visually, it works a treat, making the aircraft look even more luxurious.
Even the bedroom looks like it belongs to a five-star hotel.
We shouldn’t forget that this aircraft is basically the size of a 787 Dreamliner, but it’s only designed to accommodate a dozen people or so.
There are only two catches.
Maybe three.
First and foremost, this is just a concept, for now, so it doesn’t exist IRL, which leads us on to the second potential issue.
Nothing gets in and/or on a plane without the FAA’s say-so.
The FAA, or Federal Aviation Administration, has strict requirements in place. Everything on a plane has to be deemed airworthy, and that includes furniture, mostly due to weight-related reasons.
Making this design airworthy shouldn’t be a problem, especially considering Rodriguez has been doing this for a long time now. But it’s always something worth bearing in mind.
The third but perhaps, ironically, least relevant catch is the price.
There’s no price tag attached to this design, but it probably has several zeros in it.
Then again, a Boeing BBJ 787-7 starts at $239 million, which means that people who can afford one probably can afford to have it kitted out like this.
