Texas brothers buy abandoned Boeing 727 for $10,000
A man from El Paso, Texas, has the mission of moving and fully renovating an abandoned 59 -year -old Boeing 727 that he and his brother bought for $ 10,000. When the massive project is finished, Ismael Lara, 40, says Popular science That he hopes that the plane can serve as an educational tool and visual attraction to bring more excitement to his hometown. And he already has a name in mind: “Hangar Hangout”.
“I really want it to be an attraction, like a destination for anyone traveling,” said Lara. “It’s more like a passionate project if you think about it because it’s cool as a devil.”
Lara’s brother came across an auction for the plane last December. The Boeing plane had been sitting unused in a hangar at El Paso airport for almost 20 years. When it flew commercially, the plane could accommodate up to 129 passengers. Its former owner, a charter company called Blue Falcon Corp, would have ceased to make payments for the storage space after the death of its president in an unrelated plane crash. Before that, according to El Paso countsThe American marshals had used the plane to transport prisoners. The city finally decided to put it on auction in January 2025, with an initial requested price of only $ 1,000.
“The city of El Paso really needed this thing,” said Lara. “He had been sitting there for so long.”
When her brother showed her the list, Lara was immediately interested. The two have a history of purchase and renovation of the recovered materials. Their past projects include the repair of school buses, a cloakroom and an abandoned hairdressing salon which was finally part of the airport terminal. But none of these has been compared in terms of scale or overall cost of what the plane project would need.
Although the brothers bought the plane at a good deals price, actual expenses would be in moving and catering costs. Lara says he discovered the list just a few days before the auction. He has made rapid background mathematics and estimated that they could probably finish the entire project for around $ 250,000-perhaps less if they did most of the work themselves. Even if everything else has failed, he said, they could probably sell it as a house or airbnb and recover the investment.
“We said that, in the end, it will be worth it even if we cannot do something really interesting or exciting for the public,” he said.
They reached the relaxation. After a back and forth couple, the plane was theirs for $ 10,132, including taxes and costs.
Moving a long abandoned jet was full of surprises
Since February, the Lara brothers have meticulously dismantled and moved the average jet of the airport hangar to a neighboring property they have. Lara said they were running to finish this part of the process before the brutal summer of western Texas takes full hand. Above all, they have done now, but it was not easy.
Initially, the effort required two cranes, a dozen workers and several large trucks to dismantle and transport the main sections of the fuselage and the cockpit – which resulted in their costs. The age and state of the plane made the work even more difficult. Almost every screw and bolt is rusty, transforming their withdrawal into a tedious and time -consuming task.
But the largest and most shocking surprise arrived earlier this year while Lara and her team were trying to open the doors of the cargo bay of the plane. They wouldn’t move. When they finally opened them, they discovered seven auxiliary tanks full of jet fuel that had not been agitated for 20 years. AsnulĂ©, Lara immediately contacted the airport.
“I sent photos,” he said. “I said, guys, you had a bomb here.”
Normally, the fuel found on an aircraft can be recycled, sold and reused. But in this case, Lara learned that fuel has been seated for too long to be recovered and was now classified as hazardous waste. This meant that a specialized team should have cleared the plane and take precautions to prevent a possible explosion. This also meant that they should spend much more money to empty the tanks. Begin an airplane with usable fuel, he says, costs the Gallon about 50 cents. Deduelling one with hazardous waste? $ 9 per gallon.
“It was like $ 25,000 just fuel,” said Lara.
“A man’s garbage is the treasure of another man”, “
The Lara brothers have major projects for the hangar. They plan to refresh the interior and transform the cockpit and other key areas into a kind of “virtual excursion”, where children can learn more about aviation. Lara says he plans to install LED panels inside to make the experience more immersive. Outside, they plan to set up a food truck station. They also hope to invite local artists to paint games of the plane, offering visitors a Texas culture slice.
Although the final form is always decided, Lara says that he wants the project to be both educational and a fun attraction for people who could otherwise go through El Paso without stopping. In a city that can lack a little excitement, Lara says he wants to try to create hers.
When asked what family and friends thought when they started the project, Lara said he continued to hear two questions: “Why an airplane?” And “why?” For Lara, the choice was obvious. While some have seen an abandoned plane seated in a hangar like garbage, he said that he immediately saw it as a “opportunity”.
“A man’s garbage is another man’s treasure,” he said.
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