Elvis Presley's Lockheed Private Jet Is Now a Motorhome After 18-Month Conversion

This is arguably one of the biggest and most impressive conversion projects of a seemingly lost cause that nonetheless came with incredible celebrity pedigree. It's Elvis Presley's abandoned private jet being brought back to life, though not to the life it once had. It's also a rare airplane-to-RV conversion, and Elvis' name being attached to it only adds weight to the project.

Today, this abandoned private jet lives as a proper, certified, completed, and licensed motorhome. As of this writing, it's gearing up for its big public debut, which will happen at the 2024 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, taking place between July 22 and July 28. With an annual visitor average of some 700,000 people, we'd call this a "grand" debut.

This project has been in the works for 18 long months, ever since YouTuber James Webb, who's active online as Jimmy's World, bought it at an auction on January 8, 2023, on what would have been Elvis Presley's 88th birthday. Webb does a lot of airplane restorations, so if there ever was a YouTuber likely to finish a project of this kind, he is definitely the guy.

Then again, Webb also strayed from his usual path with this one: because he didn't have the budget to make the jet airworthy again and because there were serious doubts that it would be allowed to fly again even if he did, he decided to turn it into a motorhome. He's been able to finance most of the project through sponsorship and assorted merchandise, including pieces of memorabilia made out of the airplane parts that he could no longer use, sold as one-offs.

Elvis' jet with the most Elvis interior

The plane in question was the third addition to what Elvis Presley called the Elvis Presley Airways, also consisting of a 1958 Convair 880 (the Lisa Marie) and a 1960 Lockheed JetStar executive business jet (the Ground Hog II). He bought the 1962 Lockheed 1329 JetStar as a Christmas present to himself just months before his death, and it is believed it went through the same extensive customization process as the other two ahead of formal delivery.

Elvis was very particular about his stuff, in that it had to match his vibe, his personal style, and his brand image. That means that he sent the new purchase into the shop so that it could be customized inside and out, which also means he probably never got to set foot in it, let alone enjoy it in the air.

This would explain why the aircraft was sold off right after his passing and why it ended up abandoned at an airfield in New Mexico for close to four decades. When it was discovered again, it was in the worst shape – a most shocking condition for an asset of this size and value associated with The King.

The interior, though, was surprisingly intact. Offering seating for eight guests and three crew, it was decked in red velvet with gold hardware, including on the cup holders, the ashtrays, the seatbelts, and the hardware in the restroom. It also featured top-notch tech for that time: an AV system with a cassette player, a TV, and speakers throughout.

This being a private jet, it also included a small galley and a bar, and more than enough space to move about without feeling claustrophobic as one does on commercial jets.

Webb was the second bidder at the auction and ended up as the winner when the first one backed out. For the plane that Elvis paid $840,000 at the time of the purchase, Webb paid $260,000 after taxes, but the plane came without its original Pratt engines or electronics.

When he did the math and realized he would need another $6 million, give or take a few cents, to do a proper restoration on it, Webb concluded he might have made the dumbest financial decision of his life. He's had a change of heart since.

A motorhome unlike no other

Today, with the conversion process complete, Webb calls this "the best financial decision ever." Not only has he been able to complete the conversion without getting himself into debt, but he can monetize on it later on, both through the Elvis association and because airplane-to-RV conversions remain rare.

Right now, though, he hasn't yet decided what he'll do with it beyond the Oshkosh debut and a planned visit to Graceland later this year. Webb says he might put it into a museum, though the idea of traveling the country to allow people access to it also has its appeal.

The motorhome, which will probably go by the official name Elvis Jet, is made up of the fuselage of the jet, mounted onto a motorhome double-axle chassis. Webb had the wings and the tail cut off the Lockheed jet right after purchase, so he could move it out of the airfield on trailers. The chassis on which it sits today comes from a donated motorhome that ended up being "junk" except for the frame and running gear.

The chassis has been clad in metal, which in turn, has been chrome wrapped so, from a distance, it very much looks like the airplane is flying parallel to the road. As he promised a while back, Webb and his team struggled to honor the original aircraft and its celebrity pedigree by keeping everything as close to how it was.

This means that the colored wrap job mimics the original livery, that the cockpit remains mostly intact (down to the steering yokes, the instrumentation, and even the vintage takeoff checklist on the dashboard), and that the interior is as it was. Granted, it's now clean and fixed up, but it seems to have remained as The King himself envisioned for himself. Because Webb plans to have people onboard at the air show, he's not showing off much of the interior online.

Webb's initial estimate for the conversion was a little over $330,000, but he doesn't say whether that ended up being the budget for the Elvis Jet. However, based on his statement that this was the best decision he'd made money-wise, that's probably the case.

Elvis Jet will also be getting an official website, which will probably bring even more details about how it came to be. Webb has been documenting the entire process on his YouTube channel, with the most recent episode including the grand unveil. If you don't have one hour and 13 minutes for that, the actual tour starts at the 1-hour mark in the video below – but only counts as a teaser for better things to come.