Architect Builds House Using 4.5 Million Boeing 747 Parts

Wing House - Recycled Boeing 747 Photo

Architect David Hertz is building Francie Rehwald the home of her dreams: an eco-friendly house on 55 acres in the remote hills of Malibu, California.

Called the Wing House, the structure is being built using a commercial Boeing 747-200. We first reported the plans for the house back in 2005. But the structure requires FAA approval as to not be mistaken for a crash site.

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Boeing 747's are enormous pieces of modern transportation. Measuring 230 feet in length and 63 feet tall, the aircraft has over 17,000 cubic feet of cargo room. That's a lot of house! Which is why the "house"-- using almost all of the 395,000 pound plane--is spread over seven different structures.

Wing House - Mock Up Photo

The main residence dawns the plane's wings while the cockpit has become the Meditation Pavilion. The first class cabin deck is now the Guest House but the oddest transformation is the Animal Barn. Made from the lower half of the fuselage, which forms the cargo hold, the Animal Barn is intended for housing endangered species.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen recycled plane architecture. For example, this Costa Rican hotel:

Costa Rica Recycled Airplane Hotel Photo

And let's not forget you can also recycle shipping containers and even missile silos. But is turning a Jumbo Jet into a house actually green? I am going to say probably not.

It takes nearly 9,000 pounds of aluminum ore and 1,000 pounds of fuel to generate one ton of aluminum. And that is soda-can-grade aluminum, not 747-grade aluminum. Producing aluminum from recycled materials reduces the cost by 90-percent. That is 90-percent less materials, fuel and CO2. Now consider that a 747 consists of 150,000 pounds of high-grade aluminum.

Wing House - Recycled Boeing 747 Photo