Frequently Asked Questions

• What does it cost?: I paid $100K for the aircraft. But I think retired 727-200's are significantly lees expensive now. The costs of staging site rent, wing and tail removal, moving, and other logistics will total slightly over another $100K. So the project total will be a bit over $200K.
  
  A project like this doesn't need to be that expensive. I wanted the landing gear, all the passenger and emergency exit doors, all the flight control surfaces, and all the interior and exterior lights, so that I could rebuild the aircraft such that it will look fully operational from the outside when the project is complete, except that if one orients herself for a view through the center of the engine cowlings it'll be apparent that the engines are missing. The landing gear are expensive and aren't necessarily required, although they are wonderful as earthquake damage prevention elements. (Click here to see why this is a critical concern where I live.) The doors and emergency exits could be reproduced well and cheaply with fiberglass - a hot tub fabricator with slow sales could do this (perhaps my doors and exits could be used as the originals to make the molds). Or you could use polycarbonate (plexiglass) panels to turn these openings into very nice windows. (On the Boeing 727, you'd still have the built in rear airstairs for access.) You can also eliminate the wings and thus the flight control surfaces. A basic fuselage could be acquired for very roughly $15K or $20K, or quite possibly much less, since scrap metal prices are currently quite low. And the basic fuselage still provides the fundamental attributes needed to make an aerospace quality home, assuming that you can provide door and emergency exit fills. But you may not need to settle for just the basic fuselage even if you are on a tight budget. 727-200 Airliners are being retired at such a pace that the value of their parts is dropping substantially. My timing wasn't great - but yours could be.
  
  The logistics need not be so expensive either. Mine break down very roughly as follows: Roughly $17K to move it from the airport across a road to the staging site next door, $20K for staging site rent (about 4 months), $21.6K to remove the wings and tail, $25K to move it to my home site, and $20K in ancillary and miscellaneous costs. But very roughly 30% of those costs were mud and weather delay costs - the price of executing the project in Oregon during a La Nina winter. And another very roughly 20% were learning curve costs - the price of choosing inappropriate vendors and inefficient methods. One of the few logistics costs that was well handled was the move from the staging site to my property - I found a wonderful pair of vendors and they executed the move very well and with very good cost control. If you tackle your project during the summer, or in a dry climate, and are careful with vendor selections, and get good advice from those of us who have been down this road, and can find an inexpensive staging site for wing and tail removal, and arrange for the salvage company to remove their items on your site, you could keep the logistics costs pretty low.
  
  The bottom line: You might be able to create a Boeing 727-200 home for less than $100K - if everything is very well handled. Maybe even less than $50K, if everything is exceptionally well handled. (But have cash reserves - you dare not cut it too close and get caught in a financial bind that necessitates abandonment.)
  
  
• How much room does it provide?: The cabin and cockpit combination provide 1,066 square feet of exhilarating aerospace quality. This figure was generated from precision CAD drawings. In addition, there are two large cargo holds and some equipment bays below the cabin deck. But I don't know what the floor space of those areas is. Their ceiling is low - you can't stand up in them (but children up to roughly age seven can). The cargo holds, electronics bay, and water tank & climate control duct bay are part of the pressure canister - they share the same airspace and thus stay clean, warm, and insect and rodent free. The cargo holds are accessible from the interior via hatches, and the other bays can be easily accessed from the forward cargo bay by removing service panels. They're wonderful for kids rooms, infrastructure such as a water heater and water pressure tanks (well infrastructure), the interior section of a heat pump, and personal storage. There's also lots of room inside the tail structure, inside the wings, under the floor panels, in the wheel wells, and other areas, though none of these, except the interior of the tail, provide stand up room. I plan to put a small deck on the "second floor" inside the tail, just behind the number two engine cowling, through which the view is breathtaking. It should be a terrific place for a rare epiphany or two, or romance.
  
  Want more room? Get a wide body. My understanding is that a Boeing 747 provides 4,500 square feet of exhilarating aerospace quality - it's a bona fide castle. And that doesn't include the freight holds, which I suspect provide stand up room ceiling heights. I was fortunate enough to tour the cabin area of one with the seats out, awaiting destruction, and the roominess is absolutely remarkable. What a shame that it was destroyed. But you can't haul a wide body down the road, so if it's to be converted into a home, it has to be landed very close to the home site - within direct towing or taxi distance over open fields. Let's team up, buy a couple of hundred acres of land in a very nice area in Montana, Alaska, Arizona or some other great place, put in a strip on one side that's just large enough to land the wide bodies in empty configuration, fly them in, taxi them to their individual lots, posh them out, and sell them for one to two megabucks each. Well executed, and based upon my personal experience in the empty 747, I'm convinced they'd move at that price - and be a bargain. But I'd like a corner lot for myself.
  
  
• Why not just live in a stick house like everyone else?: The practical reasons: I don't mean to offend, but wood is in my view a terrible building material. It biodegrades - it's termite chow. And microbe (rot) chow. Or it's firewood. It just depends upon which happens first. It's a relatively weak material, and it's secured with low tech fasteners using low tech techniques. And traditional rectangular designs are inferior structurally - they unreasonably sacrifice strength for boxy ergonomics (geodesic structures solve this problem at least). Rectangular stick homes can't withstand sever winds or severe earthquakes, they frequently kill people when they explode into flames, they're easily broken into by burglars, they're leaky, and they degrade quickly. On the positive side, they are relatively economical to build (although geodesic homes are too).
  
  But retired airliners are profoundly well designed, high tech, aerospace quality sealed pressure canisters that can withstand 575 mph winds and seven G acceleration forces with ease, could last for centuries (with effective corrosion control), are highly fire resistant, and provide superior security. They're among the finest structures that mankind has ever built.
  
  But when aircraft are retired from service, they're usually just cut into scrap. To me it makes no sense at all to destroy the finest structures available and then turn around and build homes out of materials which are fundamentally little better than pressed cardboard, using ancient and inferior design and building methods.
  
  But what about the wisdom of the herd? "Normal" counts for precious little, especially if you're on fire, or feeling the walls tumble in upon you in a big earthquake, or looking down the barrel of an intruder's gun, or wondering why the home you worked all your life for is rotting out from under you. Think of it this way: When you enter an airliner, don't you get the feeling that you're suddenly wrapped in a much higher order of technology than in any other "building" you encounter in everyday life? A feeling of strength, security, capability and ergonomics that eclipses any other, almost as if you were in a home designed 50 years in the future? Imagine removing all the clutter, such as the seats, the overhead compartments, and all those pesky other people who also have flight tickets. What's left is an open, ultra high tech home with none of the disadvantages of working airliners crammed with people. That's what this project is all about. My feeling is: Pick a path based upon what makes the most sense to you and ignore the herd - let them follow each other over the edge of the nearest cliff.
  
  The real reason: It's a great toy. Trick doors, trick floors. Hatches here, latches there, clever gadgets everywhere. Cool interior lights, awesome exterior lights, sleek look, titanium ducts, Star Trek movies a Star Trek like setting. It's a constant exploratory adventure, ever entertaining, providing fundamental sustenance for a middle aged technology nerd like me. Having lots of little toys is very fulfilling. Having lots of little toys enclosed in a very big toy is nirvana.
  
  
• What's the project schedule?: I work as fast as I can, but I have a small business to run too (Hypatia Inc.), and I'm not rich and thus can't simply hire hands to do everything. Also, the considerable magnitude of the very thorough cleaning process I elected to undertake took me by surprise. So things take time. My hope is that I'll have the pressure washing (inside and out), the exterior work, consisting of reattaching the wings, tail, and engine cowlings, and building the three cylindrical landing gear support pillars*, and the basic interior infrastructure work, consisting of water, sewer, electrical and telecom, all complete and singed off by inspectors by the time the good weather of summer and fall 2002 ends. Then I'll attend to interior refinement and polish items.
  
  *These will be steel or concrete pillars with a concave top contour to serve as circular wheel chocks. A chain or elevator cable will be anchored in each of the pillars and attached to the main struts with enough play so that the gear can wander up to but not over the edge of the pillars in a severe earthquake.
  
  
• How will the infrastructure be executed?: The existing infrastructure is of aerospace quality, and the aircraft is almost a city unto itself - a lot of what's needed is already there. Since the quality is so high, as I understand it many of the directly usable elements can meet code requirements as alternate construction. (And that makes sense - why tear out superior round titanium air ducts with profoundly high quality welded seams and aerospace quality clamps and replace them with rectangular tin conduits sealed with duct tape?)
  
  The water system can probably be used essentially as it is. There's a simple water connection port on the side of the aircraft, and I now have the mating connector.
  
  The sewage system empties through the two original service ports, one in front and one in the rear. I've acquired the mating connectors for those too, as well as the associated water injection port connectors. So completing the sewage system is just a matter of connecting the outdoor lines, which will need to incorporate gas traps and vent conduits. But another possibility is to modify the internal sewer lines to incorporate gas traps, and internally connect existing titanium conduits which ultimately route up through the tail to the sewer lines to provide gas venting.
  
  The climate control system is a bit harder, but not much. My original plan: The existing ducts will be married to a heat pump, with the interior portion of the heat pump located in the climate control bay and the exterior portion aft and below, adjacent to the heat exchanger vents in the belly, or perhaps in the right wing where the auxiliary power unit exhaust used to be (those areas are external to the 'pressurized' interior). The fuselage is a sealed pressure canister, so controlled air exchange is required to avoid suffocation. So the system must route some outside air through the fuselage using the existing air intake and exhaust ports, and passing it through a filter and heat exchanger.
  
  But now that energy conservation has become so critical, I may deviate from that original plan. I may consider a heating strategy that simply ports heated air from a heat pump or other heat source, such as a solar heated water tank, directly into the center of the cabin area. That would eliminate losses associated with heat flow from the duct network to nearby cooler walls.
  
  Domestic electricity will have to be done more from scratch. But there are lots of very easily accessed areas through which the Nomex wiring can be routed, so it should be a pretty straightforward job relatively speaking. I'm going to use IEC 320 type 120 Vrms connectors (like the one on the back of your computer) rather than the traditional grotesque and dangerous NEMA 15 style normally installed in homes. (Smoking and NEMA 15 connectors will not be allowed in my aircraft.) And of course all sorts of high and low voltage 400 Hz electrical service is routed to the original illumination devices, both interior and exterior, including the SPF 35 landing and taxi lights, and I intend to put all of that back into service. I'll acquire or build a 60 Hz to 400 Hz power converter to facilitate that.
  
  The water heater, water pressure tanks (well system), and other heavy life support items will probably be located toward the back of the rear cargo area, where their heavy weight will help to restore the original balance of the aircraft, partly compensating for the loss of the engines. The backup electrical generator will probably be placed between the main landing gear bays, where the APU used to be, but another possibility is to locate it inside either the left or the right engine nacelle. All of those locations are rain sheltered but open to outdoor air.
  
  I'm going to try to connect all the service lines to the fuselage by means of a drop line from a pole, simulating as best I can a missile gantry to missile service line (but without the explosive bolts). The sewer lines may be a modified version of this though, since they have to maintain a downhill profile. I'll also install several extra conduits in the landing gear pillars before concrete is poured so that I can route service lines into the fuselage via conduits adjacent to the landing gear, both main and nose, if later deemed advantageous.
  
  In addition to all that, there are oxygen lines throughout the cabin which are designed to handle pressurized air, and I'll test a connection of that system to my compressor so that, if it can safely handle the pressure, I'll have shop air available on one side of the fuselage. I plan to connect the other side to the water system, and connect several of the many ports to sprinkler heads, yielding a fire suppression system.
  
  
• How will the interior be configured?: Studio apartment style, that is, essentially one large room. I'm single and live in the woods. I have precious little need for walls, except around the bathrooms and shower (and then only because of occasional guests). It's all subject to change, but as I currently envision it:
  
  The cockpit will be cyber office and virtual exploration space - it will be loaded with Macintoshes supporting my usual work and personal interest projects, and running flight avionics and navigation emulation screen savers when not in active use. My hope is to restructure the cockpit so as to resemble somewhat a modern video based flight deck, while also supporting my daily cyber needs. These systems may eventually be integrated with the home so that certain aircraft and domestic functions such as telecom, lighting, climate control, entertainment and security are automated through the cockpit Macs. The left cockpit wall and the cockpit door were removed to open the area to the cabin. I could also remove most or all of the flight engineer's station and seat since it cramps the area. But that's not my current inclination - at this time I'm inclined to try to find a way to functionalize it. This is much longer term, but I may try to mount the two control yokes on quick disconnect shaft couplers, and the anti glare dash on quick disconnect supports, so that the cockpit area can be easily converted from an aviation theme to a domestic room theme, the latter providing more personal maneuvering room and a better view through the windows.
  
  The three lavatories: I'm skinny, and I don't spend any more time than is necessary in lavatories, so I suspect that their small sizes won't be annoying to me. So the lavs will remain essentially as is except as follows, unless building codes force modifications. The left rear lav might be converted into a shower stall. But it's more likely that I'll keep it as is as a guest lav and add a separate shower room next to the right rear lav, which is the only one which isn't adjoined by other structure. It's also possible that I'll substantially remodel the right rear lav, making it larger and incorporating an integral shower stall. We'll see...
  
  The forward galley alcove, known as the number one and number two galleys, will probably be the kitchen area. I'll install a domestic microwave oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, possibly a freezer, and sink. I won't install a conventional oven or stove, since I never use them (I'm a nerd - I don't cook). The rear galley alcove, known as the number three and number four galleys), will be utility room. I'll install a utility washer (a dishwasher for tools and other hardware cleaning) and probably a utility sink there, and a clothes washer and dryer next close by.
  
  Two small metal working machines - a sheet metal cutting and bending machine and a metal band saw - and a hardware bench will probably be located at the right rear adjacent to the right rear lavatory (or enlarged lavatory). Or not, especially with regard to the band saw, because it's an unmanageable source of dust sized debris.
  
  The original forward closet assembly was removed - it's a bit tattered and cluttered the area. If I decide later that it'd be useful I can put it back in, but that seems unlikely at this time.
  
  The rest of the cabin will be open and of variable layout. A futon bed somewhere, a rarely used water bed somewhere else (but toward the rear for better aircraft balance), a nerd's lab and small production area, spartan domestic furnishings, audio and video entertainment systems, and lots of miscellaneous nerdly toys, including more computers. Many of these items are already on casters, including the electronics equipment which is generally in electronics racks on casters. I'll scatter them initially, and let evolution take its course.
  
  The entire length of the "S" duct in the tail area has been removed. Now there's extra room in this outdoor but rain sheltered area for whatever uses seem appropriate, probably including stairs to a small upper level deck for relaxation, reflection and perhaps romance, taking advantage of a wonderful view through the center engine cowling of the local tree tops, and a bit of the local valley and the distant mountains.
  
  
• How well does the original insulation perform?: I don't know. This is a frequent question, and certainly significant in these times, but I won't be able to answer it until I've moved in and can make some performance measurements. The insulation is pervasive, and very nice - it's all sewn into custom designed, tight containers that fit precisely around whatever structure is involved. Some say insulation performance must be excellent since the outside temperature at flight elevations is commonly -50°C. But my understanding is that the engines burn very roughly 30 gallons a minute total in cruise, so my guess is that there's a lot of excess heat available. My guess is that the level of insulation chosen for the aircraft involved a design tradeoff in which the total weight of the insulation, the weight of the climate control systems, and the noise of air circulation, among other factors, were involved. I'll try to run a test later in which I monitor indoor and outdoor air temperature differential and heat pump cycles over a 24 hour period, roughly calculate a surface area, and then calculate a rough insulation performance figure. But be patient - this is not a high priority item for me.
  
  
• Don't the zoning and building codes folks cause serious problems?: I can't speak for other regions, but in this area: Not in my experience. One has to be willing to do the work - to jump through all the hoops. But I've never experienced any obstructionism - the authorities have approached the project with open minds and renaissance attitudes. I don't enjoy having to slog through the code details any more than anyone else, but getting frustrated or upset with the county folks accomplishes nothing except to make their lives unnecessarily miserable. I think we're all inclined to complain about whether this task or that task is really necessary from time to time, but perhaps ultimately they all are, and all we're really doing is engaging in avoidance behavior - trying in vain to sidestep the required work. In my view it's better to save the energy by avoiding the avoidance behavior, and just accomplish the required tasks directly, and move on.
  
  
• Are you really a middle aged nerd?: Hmmm, well, yes, I'm pretty sure I am. This project might suggest otherwise on occasion, but a fish out of water is still a fish. I'm 52, BSEE, socially inept, skinny, easily intimidated physically, and never married. (But somehow I did manage to pass the threshold that tragically evaded Sir Isaac Newton.) I've spent most of my life hunched over a soldering iron or a terminal. Dyed in the wool. But I've made some progress - I used to be a geek. Also: Vegetarian. The Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace and PETA contributor. I've never smoked cigarettes. But I did inhale briefly in the 70's. (Just a brief exploratory phase.) My religion: The Scientific Method. The next great event in my estimation: An actual HAL-9000 like sentient silicon based life form. Associative processing technology and life sciences (and Deep Blue) have put us on the threshold - it will likely occur quite soon. It is very compelling, but very dangerous - such beings will continuously acquire, analyze, organize, and correlate information and knowledge at very high speeds, 24 hours a day, without sex drive or hunger distractions (or at least not our versions of them). And, like all life forms, they will be highly driven to survive and propagate in an environment which is inherently resource limited (Earth), and therefore inherently competitive. They will become much more powerful than we are very, very quickly. Confrontation would be futile, and provocation profoundly stupid. A brave attempt to agree to coexist will be necessary without delay - we can't afford to react out of fear. Nerrrrd...

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