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Airplanes as billboards, hotels, gas stations, etc.

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Airplanes as billboards, hotels, gas stations, etc.

Old 15th May 2012, 16:50
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Airplanes as billboards, hotels, gas stations, etc.

For a magazine article I'm doing, I'm trying to put together a list of various airplanes that have found second lives as cocktail lounges, billboards, mini-hotels, whorehouses, private homes, whatever. Something more than simple gate guardians or abandoned hulks sitting in somebody's pasture, I'm looking for airplanes that have, basically, been desecrated to some commercial end.

Anywhere in the world is fair game.

Last edited by stepwilk; 15th May 2012 at 16:50.
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Old 15th May 2012, 19:42
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There was this Hawker Hunter in the 1990s. I don't know if it's still there:

http://www.thunder-and-
lightnings.co.uk/hunter/survivor.php?id=16

I remember seeing it whilst driving along the A40.

(for some reason this page won't accept thunder-and lightnings.co.uk)

Last edited by Hipper; 15th May 2012 at 19:48.
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Old 15th May 2012, 19:52
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Here's a better picture:

Photo United Kingdom - Air Force Hawker Hunter F.1 WT555
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Old 15th May 2012, 20:05
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Suggest you go to Airliners.net; search for B747 hostel, and work down; there are a lot of a/c treated thus - DC6/7s and Connies come to mind. I've eaten well in the DC6 at Coventry. Good hunting
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Old 16th May 2012, 05:41
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There is - or was a decade ago - a Boeing 707 converted into a restaurant at Cairo airport.
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Old 16th May 2012, 06:31
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The Club 707 Restaurant in Manila, reputedly ex Pan Am, then the Marcos family's personal hack. (707-321 N728PA??)

N99WT (cn 17606/107) Del 03/60 to Pan Am as N728PA. Flightdeck of the "Club 707" restaurant 707 beside Manila Airport. It has a luxury bizjet interior, non-fan JT4 engines covered with red Pan Am engine caps and a ventral strake. It was operated by the Marcos family in the late 1970's, before becoming this restaurant in the early 1980's. The waiters say it belonged to "Elvis," but we all know that isn't so!
Here's is a few more aircraft eateries.

Ex Qantas VH-EBP. Boeing 707-338C. c/n 18810-438:
Observed as being used as a restaurant called 'The Plane' at Cairo Airport - December 4, 1994
Observed as being used as a restaurant called 'The Plane' at Cairo Airport - November 25, 1998
Restaurant owned by Kamal El Gohari
Reported to have been finally cut for scrap and carted away on trucks - December 2003
There is a small twin executive jet - a Mitsubishi??? - maybe in the 6 to 8 seat bracket, as an advert on a pole at a car wreckers on Ipswich Road, Brisbane, Australia.
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Old 16th May 2012, 06:44
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RNZAF Bristol Freighter motel
Woodlyn Park, Billy Black Unique Rail Car Accommodation / Motel, Waitomo Caves, New Zealand
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Old 16th May 2012, 07:10
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When I was at AFSOUTH, I lived in Parco Azzurro near Arco Felice. The Parco was originally developed by a co-operative of Italian Air Force officers and had a Canadair CL13 Sabre above the parco gates.

The link below provides a listing of retired aircraft in Italy by region. Several are used by restaurants or other commercial facilites.

Velivoli sopravvissuti
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Old 16th May 2012, 08:56
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I was passing through Accra, Ghana on KQ a few weeks ago and saw that the old Ghana Airways DC10 has been moved from the hangar and taken just off the airport, and loosk to be on the side of road in a "plot" so assume it will be converted into something else?
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Old 16th May 2012, 09:19
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Martin Mariner caravan...

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Old 16th May 2012, 09:30
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A jet aeroplane is on display next to the Mehrabad airport in Tehran. It used to be a restaurant which then closed for a number of years but I think my wife's cousin (an air hostess for Iran Air) said it had been renovated and had re-opened. IIRC it is located in an aviation outdoor museum.
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Old 16th May 2012, 09:39
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Jet house/home...

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Old 16th May 2012, 10:19
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There used to be a C-124 just off the airport at Las Vegas McCarran; I believe it was to have/had been used as a restaurant or casino or some such other purpose. It was there in when I went in 2000 and appeared to be in reassonable shape but has subsequently been scrapped.
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Old 16th May 2012, 12:52
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Where is WT555 now?
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Old 16th May 2012, 15:33
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Link to the former Super Connie Airplane Bar, Mississuaga, Ontario:


Urban Exploration Resource: Display Location: The Super Connie Airplane Bar




Last edited by evansb; 16th May 2012 at 15:41.
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Old 16th May 2012, 16:54
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Here's a restaurant in Romania.

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Old 16th May 2012, 19:07
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Inside the "DC-6 diner" at Coventry. G-SIXC, ex-Air Atlantique.

DSC_0047 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
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Old 16th May 2012, 19:11
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In France, to the east of Paris, there's a Breguet Duex-Ponts at a spam field in-use as a bar (we had a beer in it!).

Very close to the border of Germany (or what was East Germany) and the Czech Republic there is a Tu-104 in use as a bar. It's on the Czech side, about 200m inside. We also had a beer here!

In the Czech Republic, to the north-east of Prague, there is a IL-18 at a motorway service station. We had a beer here, too. And a 'P'!
This one qualifies easily, as it's been completely re-painted in an orange and white colour scheme.

Somewhere in up-state New York, there is an exclusive hotel which has a converted USCG S-61 as a hotel-room. (not been here, very expensive, probably couldn't afford a beer here!).

In Pattaya, Thailand there is a DC-3 used as an eye-catcher for "Ripley's Believe it or not!". It's painted bright-red, and is stuck half-in/half-out of a building as if it's crashed.

To the east of Pattaya there is a major golf course called the 'Siam Country Club', outside the entrance as an eye-catcher, they have an old NAMC YS-11.

To the south of Pattaya there is the old USAF base at U-Tapao ... now it's U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy base - at the southern end of the runway there is an old DC-3 which is converted into a hotel.
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Old 16th May 2012, 21:51
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A lot of Ryanair's 737 - 200s were painted with adverts, and that was when they were still operating. I should know, I flew all of them. Unfortunately I have no pictures. Can anyone else come up with them? The "yellow peril " (Hertz), Jaguar, two mobile phone companies ( EI-CJD, the mad cow, and CNT), News of the world, and a beer, come to mind.

Last edited by oxenos; 16th May 2012 at 22:03.
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Old 16th May 2012, 23:30
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Caribou observation post - Vietnam 1964....

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