See How This Father And Daughter Team Made A ‘Garden Hideaway’ Out Of An Old Airplane
What do you get when you combine an airplane enthusiast father with a furniture designer daughter? In the case of David and Emily Palmer, you get a unique and quirky idea for repurposing old passenger planes.
David, 52, was working on another airline project when he learned, much to his surprise, that the frames of old planes are typically scrapped after they’re no longer being used. The U.K. man quickly recognized the waste that was involved in this process and knew that there must be a better way to repurpose the materials that are part of a plane’s frame.
It was at this point that David went to Emily, who had studied furniture design, to see if they could come up with an alternate use for these old airplanes.
In a similar fashion to the repurposing of old shipping containers as so-called “tiny homes,” the father and daughter duo came up with the idea to turn the old discarded plane shells into unique garden pods, which they labeled “Aeropods.”
These Aeropods are constructed by taking the curved outer shell of an old airplane, insulating the back of it, and adding front windows. The pods are made from aviation-grade aluminum, which is designed for flight at 30,000 feet, making the structures extremely sturdy.
With a retail price of $28,000-$32,500 each, these pods can be used to construct a wide variety of structures, including playhouses, offices, gyms, man-caves, she-sheds, outdoor kitchens, home cinemas, or even saunas. As mentioned previously, the structures are fully insulated, and they can also be connected to electricity and water, so the use of these Aeropods is really only limited by your imagination.
How long does it take to build an Aeropod? The production of these pods, which are originally assembled and finished at the company’s workshop in Rougham, England, take a team of four craftsmen approximately 8 weeks to complete. This includes the entire process from the section originally being cut out of the fuselage of the plane to the finished product appearing in the customer’s yard.
Of course, the pods can’t be shipped in their fully assembled state. After the pods are completely assembled at the company’s workshop, they’re shipped to the customer in pieces. Then the company sends its craftsmen to the customer’s home to reassemble the pod.
Since David and Emily originally started DappR Aviation, which is the name of their company, they’ve expanded from solely making multipurpose garden pods. Now, the company offers innovative aviation furniture, which takes advantage of varied and interesting aviation parts they have access to. Some of the furniture that they’ve created and sold in their eBay store includes unique seating, coffee tables, clocks, and office furniture.
Purchasing one of these pods makes you a member of a small and exclusive club, as David believes that they are currently the only company that produces these pods, making them truly unique.
What are David’s thoughts about his new project? “It was a huge leap of faith to buy our first plane but we’re delighted with the result. We think it looks stunning.”
