The Ventura County Star has an interesting report today about an unusual traffic stop made by the CHP. Specifically, the CHP stopped a truck on the Conejo Grade carrying the 80-foot-long right wing of a Boeing 747 jet. The wing weighs about 25,000 pounds and can hold 200,000 pounds of fuel. It was bound for the Camarillo Airport, where it will be stored until the owner moves it to her property in the hills northwest of Malibu by helicopter. There, it will become the roof of a house that will incorporate almost all of the parts of a decommissioned Boeing 747.
The 747 (specifically, a decommissioned Boeing 747-200 that still carries the faded logo of defunct Tower Air) is owned by Francie Rehwald, whose family founded one of the first Mercedes-Benz dealerships in Southern California. She’s using it to build a home on her 55-acre property on the Ventura County end of the Santa Monica Mountains. The wings, at 2,500 square feet each, will act as the home’s roof. Other parts of the jet will be used for the house and a few outlying buildings on the property, including a meditation temple made from the nose of the 747.
There’s an article on the architect (David Hertz of Santa Monica), including some conceptual pictures, here. Mr. Hertz intends to assemble a compound of buildings connected by narrow dirt paths. The jet’s wings will rest on thick concrete walls, forming the roof of a multilevel main house. The nose will point to the sky, becoming a meditation chamber, with the cockpit window a skylight. The first-class cabin will be an art studio. The signature bulge on the top of the 747 will become a loft. A barn will house rare domestic animals such as the poitou donkey. A yoga studio, guest house and caretaker’s cottage will round out the compound. The ailerons will be used to control the awning on the patio by the swimming pool. The eight buildings will be scattered across the terraced hillside as if it were a “crash site.” As it happens, the site lies under a jet flight path into Los Angeles International Airport. That concerns the Federal Aviation Administration, which has asked the architect to paint special numbers on the wing pieces to alert pilots that Ms. Rehwald’s retreat is not a crashed jumbo jet.
My favorite quote on this effort: Noting that they had to meet with county engineering officials to persuade them that the jet parts could withstand the strong winds that sometimes buffet Ms. Rehwald’s property, the team noted, “It’s difficult to get a city engineer who is used to working with 2-by-4s and plaster to realize that an airplane that flies 500 miles per hour can stand up to 40-mph winds.”
I think this is really cool. Wouldn’t it be great to have the cash to be able to do this?
