When he was fifteen, Bruce Campbell (American electrical engineer, not the lead actor in director Sam Raimi’s “Possession from Hell” trilogy) saw an aircraft graveyard on a TV show and decided he wanted to live in one. Now 73, he fulfills his dream in a 200-passenger Boeing 727 that belonged to the late Aristotle Onassis, husband of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
In the 1970s, Campbell paid $25,800 for 25 acres of land in Hillsboro, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, by his own account, but waited until 1999 to try to buy a plane. Mistake, as he admitted, by hiring a junk dealer, he arranged for the Boeing to be brought to him from Greece, paying a total of $120,000 for the vehicle, transportation, and removal of the engines.
“When you live in a structure like this, you feel a little more fulfilled in your life,” he admits, without trying to hide his admiration for the work that goes into the building in which he resides. “If you’re an engineer, scientist, or anyone who appreciates the elegance and beauty of aerospace technology, it’s simply the happiest place to live.”
Upon entering you can see a small area dedicated to the kitchen, a structure that works as a shower, a portable washing machine and a refrigerator next to a sofa that works as a bed as well as a work station. Their monthly expenses are around 370 dollars, with about 220 dedicated to taxes and between 100 and 250 dollars to electricity consumption.
bruce campbell lives on a planeCNBC
Given his occupation, it’s hard to see how the engineer could be more comfortable anywhere else. Now, he spends his time restoring old computers and fixing electrical systems inside the plane, which is also open as a kind of tourist attraction that techies can get inside.
“I don’t regret pursuing my vision,” says Campbell. Referring to the reaction and response of the people he has received, he expresses his conviction that “humanity will embrace the possibility that we can use all the planes they stop using in this way.”
When not in the United States, Campbell travels to Japan, where he hopes to start an identical project, thus having two planes as residences. “It would be a house that I love in a place that I love with people that I love,” as he himself refers to the plan.
