They Turned Elvis' Jet Into a Recreational Vehicle

When Elvis Presley died in 1977, all of his possessions became icons. Most of it was sold off to the highest bidder, some went to museums, and some stayed at Graceland where fans and tourists could pay money to see them. But it was difficult to sell off the jet plane. Elvis purchased a 1962 Lockheed L-1329 JetStar and sold it within a few months not long before he died. No one had the cash, nor the space to display the plane. It sat abandoned at an airport for decades.

Then in 2023, James Webb purchased the jet. You may know him from the YouTube channel Jimmy's World, where he documents the adventure of his jet purchase. Webb's hobby is restoring old planes and flying them again, but Elvis' jet proved difficult, as the needed repairs would run more than $6 million. So Webb went in a different direction and gave up on flying the plane. Instead, he made it into an RV! Mercedes Streeter got to tour the restored plane (complete with red velvet seats) as a motor coach, and called it "simultaneously the best and the worst RV." See what she means as she tells the story of Elvis' jet at the Autopian. 

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