You may have heard of avgeeks recreating aircraft cabins in their homes, but how about an entire house built using the wings of a decommissioned Boeing 747? Known as the 747 Wing House, this unique construction is located in the Santa Monica Mountains, northwest of Malibu, California.
The 747 Wing House is built on the former estate of Hollywood set designer, Tony Duquette, which was destroyed in a fire in 1993. Its current owner, Francie Rehwald, subsequently commissioned US architect David Randall Hertz for the design in 2007.
The wings come from the 28th Boeing 747 to be built – a Boeing 747-100 registered as N93106. It was delivered to Trans World Airlines in 1970, and flew for the carrier until being retired in 1992. Trans World Airlines had a total of 25 Boeing 747-100s in its fleet, one of which operated flight TWA800 that tragically crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in July 1996.
A closer look at the project
The main roof is almost entirely made up of the Boeing 747’s recycled wings. Doing so saved a considerable amount of energy, carbon emissions, and waste that would have otherwise been generated by creating the structure from conventional materials.
Supported from below by just four concrete foundations where the engines were previously mounted, the wings appear to float. This allows for expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, flooding the property with natural light and opening it up to the panoramic views of the surrounding valley.
The long road to completion
The design team had to first go through a lengthy approval process involving 17 government agencies, including Homeland Security, before starting the build.
The Boeing 747 was purchased for $30,000, and was subsequently dismantled at Victorville Airport, home to a substantial aircraft storage facility that was well-used throughout the pandemic. The aircraft parts were then transported throughout the night to Camarillo Airport, with multiple lanes of highway needing to be closed off to accommodate the enormous structure.
Due to the size of the wings, it was impossible to transport them by road to their final destination in the remote Santa Monica Mountains, so they had to be flown from Camarillo Airport by helicopter – a process fraught with risk, but that thanks to meticulous planning, went smoothly.
The project was completed in 2011, and while its overall cost has never been revealed, it is estimated to be several million dollars. The building recently featured on the Netflix series The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes:
A future-proof design
While the current build makes use of the aircraft’s two wings and tail section, Randall Hertz has also designed a series of outlying buildings using the remaining parts of the Boeing 747’s fuselage, such as a 50-foot-long art studio, guest house, and meditation pavilion with a skylight made from the cockpit windows. These have not yet been built, but could be future additions to the house.
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