Remembering Celebration Grill: The Stripped PW2000 Engine With Two Cooking Stations Inside

However, the PW2000 we'll be talking about today won't ever be seen strapped to the wings of a Boeing 757, but rather whipping up the most amazing barbeque experience that I have ever seen. While this may be old news for some, it's still worth the next few minutes of your time.

Now, what we're looking at here isn't some project that a random guy decided to whip up in their backyard with pieces of bent sheet metal and aluminum, but rather, a serious modern marvel crafted by a serious crew, none other than Delta Airlines TechOps team, the one and the same that oversee maintenance, repairs, and overhauls for Delta Airlines. It's also headquartered at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.

For starters, it's important to note that the TechOps team didn't just rip a PW2000 off of a functioning 757, but rather, brought the "Celebration Grill" to life using scraps found around the yard, which also means that it's an exact replica in terms of size, or at least, it's casing is. It's also bolted in place at headquarters, so if you feel like you're hungry to try a fuselage-infused burger, you'll have to give this crew a call and see if they'll allow you on the premises.

From the outside, the Celebration Grill looks nearly like any other PW2000, to the untrained eye, that is. But once it's time to prepare lunch, two cutouts are hydraulically actuated and lifted in place to reveal two grilling stations and also create two massive awnings that make this thing look like an albatross trying to take flight.

With the grills now accessible, we can see the amazing job the TechOps crew executed here. Not only are there two grills, but these babies look gas-powered, giving cooks complete control over the combustion process. Overhead, a hooded ventilation system ensures you constantly see what you're cooking, and to the left, a massive countertop lies in wait to keep everything within arm's reach.

All that takes place in what would normally be the PW2000's compression and combustion chambers, and the rest of the engine is basically repurposed or emptied out; it's mostly a shell. For example, the rear or exhaust nozzle is barred off from the combustion chamber with a wall of aluminum or steel, but the ventilation seems to be running out of this section.

However, at the front, the PW2000 still has its signature fan blades in place, but only the first layer, or the main ones. The remaining layers of blades found in the compression chamber have been eliminated to allow for the grill's placement. And that's just about all that makes up this crazy project.

However, there's a tad more to the story that we may be overlooking: the impressions something like this can leave on a neighborhood lunch. As I explored the Celebration Grill, I encountered all sorts of comments pertaining to this project, and all of them offered us a taste of humanity.

For example, some Facebook users stated that this thing should cook meals in under ten seconds and spit them out the exhaust nozzle. Others wonder how a burger tastes when cooked with jet fuel, and some even expressed other uses they'd have for this, primarily a smoke pit. But, no matter the comments, even folks inside the aircraft industry say that this is one hell of a well-executed idea.

The question is, where do we go from here? Well, unless you're part of the Delta Airlines team, there's only one way you can experience a meal cooked inside the casing of an aircraft engine: to build it yourself! But how do we go about doing that?

This is where things get a bit tricky. First off, you need to find an engine, and honestly, even Facebook Marketplace has something like this sometimes, if not an entire aircraft, perhaps. Stage two is decontaminating that thing and making it meal-ready. I don't even want to get into the details of that step, but you can be sure it's going to need some hazmat suits, assuming you have a controlled and safe environment where to do this.

But, you can always take a shortcut, and one that's sure to cost you less than the price of the Celebration Grill, which so happens to be around $300K (€279,500 at current exchange rates): build it yourself. Suppose you're a craftsman at heart and know how to bend steel and aluminum to your will, handle a rivet gun, and even lay down ventilation and gas lines. In that case, you and your neighborhood are sure to end up in some local newspaper. Trust me, "If you build it, they will come."