Woman building house from Tower Air 747 told by FAA to mark 'crash site'

[question everything]

Woman building house from Tower Air 747 told by FAA to mark 'crash site'

By Justin Wastnage in London
Flight International

A Californian woman attempting to make a home out of a retired Boeing 747 has been told by the US Federal Aviation Administration to use clear markings on the fuselage parts to avoid alarming passengers flying into Los Angeles international aiport (LAX).

Francie Rehwald approached architect David Hertz to construct an environmentally-friendly home out of recycled industrial waste and he hit upon the idea of using scrapped 747 fuselages. However, Hertz's design envisages a "strewn" look for the parts visible above ground, giving the appearance, say the FAA, of a crash site.

Hertz acquired a former Tower Air 747-200 (similar to the one pictured below) from Mojave-based Aviation Warehouse for around $100,000 and converted it into his design. The junked 747 has been cut apart, with the wings providing the roof, the fuselage the main shell and the nose a meditation temple.

(snip)

It is these additional outstations that gave the FAA concern, as the eight buildings in total could be construed as a crash site. The Malibu site lies under an LAX flight path and the agency raised official concerns at a Ventura County planning permission hearing. Hertz has agreed to paint identifier numbers on the wing pieces to alert pilots that the Rehwald house is not a crash. Rehwald says she wanted the $2 million home to be "feminine, with lots of curves."

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/04/21/Navigation/177/206095/Pictures+Woman+building+house+from+Tower+Air+747+told+by+FAA+to+mark+'crash.html


http://www.flightglobal.com/assets/getAsset.aspx?ItemID=12375 (this is the image link, cannot post it directly)

[SlipperySlope]

1. What, does the FAA have some sort of building code authority?

I say to hell with them. Have perpetually burning fires all over the property, and little robots running aroung looking like passengers screaming.

[CottonBear]

6. All communities with airports have some sort of Airport Overlay Zoning

for the Surface Approach Zones and the Transitional Surface Approach Zones. Density of development and occupancy, height of buildings and other structures, use of the property and restrictions on the type (brightness, color, shielding, non-flashing, strobing etc.) The local airport authority boards can vote to approve approve with conditions or deny proposed developments int he overlay zones.

BTW, I LOL at your fire and robot idea! :)

[Warpy]

10. No, but I can see why they'd object to an apparent crash scene

and also to obvious planes on the ground. In poor weather, pilots might be confused by them.

I think the recycling idea is brilliant, but she needs to make them look like something besides what they are. Her idea sounds tackarama.

[cornermouse]

2. Bad taste, at the very least.

[ThomCat]

3. I think that's a great way to use old

planes. I hope the final plan is adaptable enough that other people could use it too.

[MADem]

4. Paint it pink, that's surely feminine, and would obviate confusion

BTW, I can't get that first link to work-- I get General Error Page...

[question everything]

11. Hmmm try again

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/04/21/Navigation/177/206095/Pictures+Woman+building+house+from+Tower+Air+747+told+by+FAA+to+mark+'crash.html

I wonder whether the slashes turn to pluses when one clicks on the link

Perhaps copying and pasting the two parts?

http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/04/21/Navigation/177/206095/Pictures

+Woman+building+house+from+Tower+Air+747+told+by+FAA+to+mark+'crash.html

[MADem]

12. I went to the site and typed in woman, house in the search feature

and was able to read it that way. The link just didn't want to cooperate! But the best bit was, at the bottom of the article was a link to another article with some good architect's renderings of the house:

http://www.realestatejournal.com/buildimprove/20051111-frangos.html

Ms. Rehwald, whose family founded the first Mercedes-Benz dealership in southern California, is intent on adding to the genre. She has reserved a junked jet to purchase, charmed local planning officials and spent $200,000 on consultants.

"I am as much a part of this world as a bird, the frog in the creek," says Ms. Rehwald, who used to work at the family dealership, of her environmental motives. She wears a white sailor's hat perched atop her tossled blond hair, and her gold and silver bracelets jangle as she speaks. "This is my antidote to the malling of America."

Mr. Hertz has designed homes for such boldface Hollywood names as Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld fame. He says his aeronautical inspiration struck after a long flight from Los Angeles to Scotland. The 747, he says, "though designed in the 1960s, is still an absolutely beautiful contemporary object...Hertz isn't the first architect to find inspiration in aeronautics, and people have turned grounded airplanes -- small ones at least -- into makeshift homes before. But Mr. Hertz may well be the first to propose building a high-end home with pieces of a 747.

First, Mr. Hertz had to find a plane. New 747s start at more than $200 million. He called Mark Thompson of Aviation Warehouse, who runs an airplane junkyard in the California desert that resembles the futuristic wasteland of "Mad Max." Mr. Thompson told him that $70,000 to $100,000 would buy Ms. Rehwald a decommissioned Boeing 747-200 that still carries the faded logo of defunct Tower Air. Half the value was in the ailerons, the moveable parts of the wing. Mr. Hertz figured he could use them to control the awning on the patio by Ms. Rehwald's swimming pool....

[KansDem]

5. Well, to each his own...

I have enough trouble riding in one of these things if only for a few hours at a time, let alone living in them.

[peacetalksforall]

7. The FAA concern is genuine. But, in time, it could become famous

and a novelty to identify for all flying past it (if they learn it hadn't previously crashed there).

[pa28]

8. The design is actually very well done.

I don't know how anyone would confuse this with wreckage.

[acmejack]

9. I had envisioned something along the lines of this: