chelsea-air
Has anyone heard about a Boeing 767 fitted out by Jet Aviation?
Is it true the jet is for Mr. Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, as reported by Flight?
BYLINE: Justin Wastnage / London
BODY:
Swiss business aviation services company Jet Aviation is to outfit a Boeing 767 in a VIP configuration after producing what it claims is the first-ever complete full-scale mock-up of a 767 interior.
The aircraft, originally built for Hawaiian Airlines, is believed to be owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, although Jet Aviation refuses to comment.
Jet Aviation created the cabin replica at its completion centre in Basle, Switzerland late last year and has now been awarded the completion contract, which it is scheduled to finish by February next year. Bernd Schramm, head of the Basle completion centre, says the customer had preferred to view a walk-through mock-up rather than conceptualise the interior from computer renderings and artists' impressions. It is usual to produce a mock-up for one or several compartments of a VIP jet, but this is the first complete aircraft interior for a 767 to be built, he adds.
Jet Aviation's cabinetry shop manufactured the life-sized model of the fuselage interior from plywood and polystyrene in six weeks. It features several rooms of varying complexity including one with fully veneered cabinets. The full size 767 cabin replica is estimated to have cost around SFr200,000-400,000 ($150,000-300,000).
The aircraft will be completed with a 30-seat cabin, along with several bedrooms, bathrooms and living quarters.