What was your student dorm like? Mine was a bland, bottom-floor apartment with grey walls, a tiny shared kitchen and a distinct lack of soundproofing. For pupils at a flight school in Alaska, their campus housing is about to get a whole lot more exciting, as the school prepares to convert an old Boeing 727 into student housing.
According to KTUU News in Alaska, the retired Boeing 727 freighter was initially donated to the University of Alaska by shipping giant FedEx back in 2013, after the plane reached the end of its service life. While housed at the university’s Aviation Technology Centre at Merrill Field Airport, the plane was used by students for hands-on training as part of the school’s aircraft maintenance program.
Now the plane, which took its first flight on February 14th, 1979, is set to begin its next chapter as a combination of student housing and AirBnB accommodations at the Fly8MA Flight Training centre in Big Lake, Alaska.
The first step in the old plane’s regeneration will see it travel almost 97 km from its current home at Merrill Field Airport to Fly8MA’s new base, which is currently under construction. To get there, the plane will have its wings, nose and tail removed before being loaded onto several tractor-trailers.
Then, with pilot cars clearing the traffic ahead, the plane will travel at a cautious 10 to 15 mph along Debarr Road, Boniface Parkway and Glenn Highway to reach its new home. The whole journey is predicted to take around six hours, scheduled for the evening of April 5th.
Once the plane reaches its new home, the real transformation will begin. From initial designs shared by the flight school, it looks as if the left-side wing will be transformed into a sun deck for visitors, complete with a hot tub. At the rear, the tail will also be transformed into a new seating area.
Inside, the old freighter will be filled with all the niceties you need for a student dorm capable of accommodating would-be pilots. Fly8MA Flight Training centre also plans to fit a one-bedroom stateroom into the rear of the old aircraft.
KTUU News reports that the Fly8MA flight school hopes to have the transformation completed by the end of 2024.