Finally! The Elvis Jet RV Is Complete and on Display at the Huge AirVenture Show
It’s a pretty straight shot from Plant City, Florida, to Oshkosh, Wisconsin—1364 miles, using mostly Interstates 75 and 65. But that’s not the route that Jimmy Webb took driving to the 71st edition of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture Oshkosh, the world’s largest fly-in convention which, last year, drew 677,000 people and over 10,000 aircraft.
YouTube star Webb and his trusty sidekick, the very-bearded Grizzly, wandered their way to Wisconsin, and why shouldn’t they? The pair was traveling in a perplexing RV constructed from a 1962 Lockheed JetStar once owned by Elvis Presley that had been abandoned for decades at an Arizona airport. Webb bought the jet—long ago stripped of all items necessary for flight, including instruments and four jet engines, though the red-velvet interior remained—for $234,000.
We telephoned Webb as he was en route to Oshkosh. “People can’t believe what they’re seeing on the road,” he said. “It would be easier to count the cars that didn’t have a camera hanging out the window as they went by, than the cars that did.”
Fuel stops became community gatherings. “We spent at hour at the diesel pumps at a Buc-ee’s yesterday,” he said, “with all the people asking questions and wanting to come inside for a look.”
It would have cost millions to make the JetStar fly again, but Webb had other plans: Chop off the wings and the tail, and make an RV out of what was left. He trucked the 60-foot-long, 42,500-pound business jet to Florida. With some help, he and Grizzly mounted the fuselage on the chassis of a donated diesel-powered motorhome, pledging to have the project completed in time to drive to AirVenture, which began Monday and runs through Sunday. And they did, zig-zagging to multiple Bass Pro Shop locations roughly en route from the Elvis Jet construction site in Plant City, to meet and greet YouTube fans.
There was also one inevitable stop: Graceland, Elvis’ longtime home-turned-tourist-attraction in Memphis.
We’ve covered the story here and here, beginning in January of last year. We even paid the project a visit here in May of this year—if you look at the grim-looking photos from that story, and compare them to the finished product, it’s hard to believe the progress Webb made.
If you’re just joining us: Jimmy Webb is a Tampa-based, full-time YouTube content creator, for a channel called Jimmy’s World. Webb has pinpointed a profitable niche in the crowded online video universe, producing one or two videos a week that have him typically discovering an abandoned airplane, and sometimes buying it and trying to make it fly, which is as sketchy as it sounds. He’s found everything from the band Motley Crue’s abandoned Learjet ($64,500, 2.7 million YouTube views), to a MiG-15 fighter jet (2.2 million views) that was for sale on Facebook Marketplace. He’s funny, and you don’t have to be an aviation buff to appreciate his work, as suggested by his nearly half-million subscribers.
Late in 2022, Webb learned that Mecum Auctions Kissimmee, the annual biggest-in-the-world, 4500-vehicle auction that happens each January in the Orlando, Florida suburb, would be auctioning off the Elvis Jet. Mecum offers financing, which Webb took full advantage of; after the purchase, Webb oscillated between what-the-hell-did-I-just-do buyer’s remorse, and genuine excitement over what he figured would be a jumbo series of well-watched videos. He was correct.
Adorned with a wrap that replicates the now-faded, red-with-silver-striped paint job up top, and a stainless steel-with-chrome bottom that’s accented by polished aluminum wheels, the Elvis Jet—that’s what Webb calls it—is downright handsome, a word we never thought we’d apply to the project. The cockpit is basically as it was found, with the left-side yoke attached to a rod that’s coupled to the power steering unit. Aside from cleaning up the startlingly well-preserved velvet upholstery in the passenger compartment, Webb and Grizzly left it alone. Even though Elvis never flew on this JetStar—he bought it shortly before he died on August 16, 1977—the connection to the King, no matter how fleeting, still seems to resonate with people who weren’t even alive then.
So the Elvis Jet will spend the rest of the week at AirVenture Oshkosh, “Until they kick us out,” Webb said. If you’re going, they’re located between hangars A and C.
And after that? “I have no idea,” Webb said. “No idea what I’m going to do with it.”
I’ve been watching these antics on Youtube and the one thing that I really didn’t undestand is why he didn’t build the camper chassis into the fuselage instead of setting it on top of it. I would have put the rear duals right into the wing slots and worked them into wheel wells. The way it is, it looks very awkward and top heavy
Agreed.
The way it is constructed if he (or next owner) changes his mind about having it as a RV they can remove the still intact fuselage and repurpose it as something else (vacation cabin, MIL room, etc.).
Sounds like you understand MIL’s pretty well.
Spending your golden years in Elvis’ jet plane? Certain dreams come true.
Did Hank Williams have a plane? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law (RIP) would’ve preferred a room made from that rather than from Elvis’ jet. She was a ridin’ and ropin’ Rodeo Queen raised on a ranch in the wilds of SE Idaho.
I think one of the earlier articles stated that it would’ve been difficult or impossible to get it registered as roadworthy had he done that.
Agreed.
Agreed. I’ll add ugly to that statement. Maybe he was trying to preserve some esthetic of the original plane but after the tail was gone all of that was lost. I have seen photos in the past of RVs made from aircraft that sort of worked. The difference was that they started off with larger planes like a DC3. This jet may have been too small to do better.
The vision and hustle is admirable, in what some may see as a foolish bet:
-Elvis remains a collectible icon, now long-after his core original audience has aged out of that market. You don’t do this with any old aircraft.
-leveraging one’s social media fame to raise the profile of a bizarre project is a smart play. Without the audience to feed this could only be a wealthy person’s folly.
-creating content making the bizarre talking point RV, and then touring with said talking-point draws more attention and cements the notion of this as “the Elvis Jet RV” even though it is a thread of DNA to Elvis. 4 Hagerty articles alone… Excellent salesmanship really.
-the sale of the souvenir pieces of the jet, as long as enough sell, means this will more than break even financially.
Great points. The phrase “what he figured would be a jumbo series of well-watched videos. He was correct.” tells oodles and gobs about the difference between folly and foresight here.
I don’t see the appeal beyond part of a jet driving around would look weird. The Elvis connection is quite loose but hey use what you got to promote it. I think it’s silly and have no interest i it.
Yet here you are, taking the time to tell us all of your lack of interest. Okay 👌
Can he actually see enough to drive it safely?
I don’t think safety was a big consideration here.
No worse than many RVs. He has rear view mirrors and cameras all over it.
I am sure there is someone that can not wait to see it.
I assumed from the initial photo that the fusilage was mounted on a giant trailer and towed around. The discovery that it is an independently-powered RV leads me to agree with the first comment…..the design could have been so much better, with the wheels and engine incorporated within the fusilage itself.
There is an equally stunning DC3 converted to a motorhome out there…cudos!
As a lifelong aircraft fan….an abomination.
But it beats being stripped and left to rot in the desert.
The Air Force had 16 of them, several were for VIPs (mini Air Force 1s for short trips or to places the 707 couldn’t go)…A few have been preserved, others, very well stripped became graffiti “art planes” at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson…A fate even worse than this.
BTW: Mario Andretti had one. It was scrapped for parts.
BTW II: the Jet Star appeared in “Goldfinger” as Goldfinger’s jet.
John Wayne in “Hell Fighters” too.
There was no way this plane was flying again, a gas hog with airworthiness directives up the wazoo, no way to meet noise restrictions and difficult or impossible to meet other mandates (RVSM, TAWS, ADS-B) and bad corrosion. EAA has an interview.
Another answer to a question that no one has asked.
A bigger wiener mobile, just sayin.
Ha Ha, good one
Should have made a diner!
Serving the Kings favorites
Peanut Butter and Banana sandwiches?
Cool! Hope the owner can recoup some of his money by selling parts of the plane to Elvis fans (And there are thousands of them out there!)
To me his contraption looks like a fuselage on a trailer without a tractor pulling it.
WWCFD? (what would Chip Foose Do?)
This…
And by “This” I mean “that is the proper question.” Foose would produce something truly amazing.
He should have used the back half instead
I worked on a working (flying) passenger jet converted to an RV a few tears ago. Lady was from Hong Kong.
Made this look silly.
Turned out better, faster than expected. Seems a bit odd to be perched so high in the air. They might should have approached the fab shop that works for Oscar Mayer for a little engineering advice. Me, I would have shortened it a bit and left the tail on it.
A Weinermobile rolled (get it!?) in Oak Brook the other day, so the handling is a little suspect. Frankly, I’d be looking at McDonald’s on that one.