Elvis' plane joins 'what could possibly go wrong' collection

Just last January the auctioneer, the former wife and trustees of the estate proclaimed “It’s Now or Never” and dropped the gavel on the jet that’s been sitting at the Roswell airport, which once belonged to Elvis Presley.

The aircraft has been the subject of several news stories over the years and has been listed in at least three previous auctions. It’s been parked on the tarmac in Roswell, out in the weather for 40 years.

It popped back into my attention span while browsing YouTube last week on a channel called Jimmy’s World. James “Jimmy” Webb buys and fixes up aircraft and other things and utilizes the mantra “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” on his apparently popular social media sites.

I knew from previous stories about the jet that it was unlikely to ever fly again. After all, the four jet engines had long ago been repossessed from an owner after Elvis. That didn’t stop Jimmy from paying $234,000 for the rusting crate. He apparently won the auction as the runner-up when the winning bidder fell through. “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”

After buying the plane sight-unseen, Jimmy makes the trip from Florida to Roswell to see what he’s bought. He does a comedic walk-around, pointing out obvious shortcomings with the words “awww, that’ll be just fine.”

He touches the nose of the aircraft and paint comes off on his hand.

Inside, he admits there’s a bit of an odor but his giddiness at the cockpit, that’s obviously missing lots of parts, takes over. Back in the cabin he’s thrilled with the reclining and swiveling plush red velvet seats and the entertainment center with VCR, cassette deck and a television. A vintage 1970s microwave graces the galley and an upholstered cushion rests atop the toilet seat when folded down — a throne worthy of a king.

Jimmy takes the paperwork, proving the plane was owned by Elvis A. Presley, to a nearby McDonald’s to examine while eating a cheeseburger and fries. I cringed as he ate over the documents with The King’s signature.

The plane is a 1962 model that was popular with celebrities and rich folks in the 1960s and ’70s. Presley owned several jets and added this one in 1976, not long before his death. No one seems to know if he actually traveled in it, however. But it was owned by the hip-shaking singer and anything associated with him is worth big money. It was sold to a Saudi Sheik and taken overseas but later brought back to the U.S. and sold eventually to a New Mexico oilman, which explains where it was parked.

Jimmy made another video where they plugged the aircraft into one of the tarmac power stations and, amazingly, most of the lights both inside and out, including the cockpit, worked. The YouTuber was most tickled by the fact that the microwave worked and the radio and TV came on.

Another video detailed a rough estimate of what it would take to make the bird fly again, the jet, not the pigeons roosting in its tail. The estimate came in at $5.7 million, which they cautioned was best-case scenario if the engines could even be found. But the bad news was that even fixed up the jet wouldn’t meet Federal Aviation Administration regulations because of the tremendous noise the engines make.

Unfazed, Jimmy is moving on to Plan B — disassembling the plane and hauling it to Florida to a really long storage unit where he hopes to refurbish it and place it on a heavy motorhome chassis so that it can tour the U.S., bringing Elvis to the masses, while earning cash for charity. What could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned to YouTube for the next year and find out, promises Jimmy’s World.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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