Jet airliners are typically “retired” after around 30 years of service, and while there are many ways to re-use bits of them – such as chopping off their cabin sections to be fitted out as training simulators – many are ignominiously fated to rust away in vast aircraft graveyards, only getting the odd bit of attention when some extreme sports dude comes and does sick motorbike jumps on them.
At this stage, according to CNN, these big birds are being decommissioned at a rate of 700 a year and climbing, so there’s definitely plenty of opportunity for reclamation projects like what small startup Aeropods is doing over in the northwest of Ireland.
These guys have been taking high-quality sections of insulated fuselage, and fitting them out as little offices, sheds, playrooms or glamping pods, with double-glazed doors on one end, a wall on the other, a clean, insulated floor, a wooden deck and basically whatever else a client wants inside, like power sockets, heating/air con, color LED mood lighting and the like.
They’ll build them longer, shorter or with larger or smaller diameters within reason, and they’ll ship to anywhere, since these pods are designed to be easily lifted and transported on the back of a truck. Aeropods says this makes them handy as portable outdoor expo stands and pop-up retail operations as well. The exterior can be painted up, or left the way it was painted in service, and washing it down is about the same process as washing a car.
According to CNN, these things sell for between €20,000 and €37,000 (US$22,000 to $56,000). That makes them pricey in the office pod world, but then they’re certainly pretty neat conversation starters with some interesting history behind them; not many people can claim their office is better traveled than they are.
Cute office pods give new life to decommissioned airliner fuselages [New Atlas]