Elvis Presley’s Private Plane Arrives in Florida
Elvis is reading letters from his fans, March 17, 1956.
InternationalIndiaAfricaIn February, Elvis Presley’s old plane was sold at auction after it had been grounded for nearly 40 years.The plane was bought by James Webb, an airman and vlogger, author of ‘Jimmy’s World’ on YouTube, for $234,000 and transported from Roswell, New Mexico to Florida, traveling more than 1,600 miles.“Airplane itself is flipping cool, even without the obvious connection, but if you add in the Elvis connection, there’s no rock ‘n’ roll star bigger than Elvis, in my opinion,” Webb said.Now the plane is being stored in Plant City by the new owner. Webb plans to transform it into an RV to tour the country and raise funds for charities.The rock ‘n’ roll king’s private jet, which had been sitting in the New Mexico desert for 40 years, was sold at auction on 8 January – what would have been the musician’s 88th birthday. The initial bid for the 1962 Lockheed 1329 Jetstar was $100,000, but bids kept flowing in and eventually the plane was sold to the new owner for $260,000. According to media reports, the last owner of the plane, which has been parked in the desert for close to 40 years at the Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico, was Californian businessman Jim Gagliardi, who bought it at a 2017 auction for $430,000.Elvis Presley bought the plane on 22 December 1976, for $840,000 and used it during his tour along with two more of his private jets. After almost four decades of being grounded, the plane was noticeably damaged from the outside, but inside it was preserved almost in its original condition. The seats are covered in red velvet and the cabin paneling is made of wood and decorated with gold.
