Elvis Presley's 1962 Lockheed Private Jet Comes Back to Life After 40 Years

It's way too early to answer that question but the new owner already took the first steps in finding out if the 1329 Jetstar is worth restoring. The Lockheed is now owned by James Webb, an aircraft enthusiast who runs a YouTube channel called "Jimmy's World." Jimmy owns and flies quite a few small airplanes and spends a lot of time fixing abandoned aircraft.

The 1962 Lockheed is by far his most ambitious project to date and I'm pretty sure it's also the most financially demanding. Not only because Jimmy will need to spend a lot of cash to get it running again, but also because he spent almost a quarter-million dollars to buy it.

Jimmy actually lost the aircraft at the time it went under the hammer. As you may remember, the gavel fell at $260,000 (or $286K including fees), which was $60,000 more than what Jimmy was willing to spend. But the winner didn't go through with the deal and Mecum Auctions contacted Jimmy to make him an offer. He ended up buying the thing for $234,000.

Come March 2023 and Jimmy already spent a few days with the Lockheed to assess its condition and to try and figure out where to start. A "will it run" attempt is out of the question without a detailed inspection of the drivetrain, but Jimmy decided to connect it to power to see if anything turns on. And much to his surprise, the private jet that was once owned by rock and roll legend Elvis Presley came back to life. That's pretty spectacular given that the Lockheed has been sitting since the 1980s.

While missing quite a few control panels and dials, the cockpit began working again as soon as the aircraft got electric power. Not only that, but the Lockheed still has functional landing and taxi lights. Amazingly enough, the TV and the microwave oven also work. And Jimmy is more than excited to discover them one by one. I would be too after spending $200K+ on a derelict aircraft.

But the Lockheed is far from being flight-worthy. Jimmy doesn't say whether he's planning to restore the aircraft or not, but the video ends with a teaser for a future vlog in which he talks to an expert about what needs to be done to get the jet to fly again. And it seems he needs to spend $450,000 just to fix the flight control system. Ouch!

But speaking of huge amounts of money, Elvis Presley reportedly paid a whopping $840,000 for this 1329 Jetstar back in December 1976. Adjusting for inflation, that would be no less than $4.3 million in 2023.

This Jetstar is one of 202 such airplanes produced by Lockheed. Equipped with wood cabin paneling and trim, six passenger chairs with swivel and recline functionality, and custom red/gold upholstery, the Jetstar was one of the fanciest private jets available at the time.

"The King of Rock'n Roll" owned the aircraft until the spring of 1977 (a few months before he passed away), when the Jetstar was sold to a Saudi Arabian company. The plane was moved to Roswell, New Mexico, sometime in the 1980s. Watch it come back to life after 40 years in the video below.