After going through a divorce, Joe Axline, often known as Captain Joe, came to the conclusion that it was finally time for him to start living the life he had always imagined for himself.
You have to be aware of the fact that ever since he was a young boy, he has treasured the idea of building his house in the clouds.
He was motivated as a child to follow in the footsteps of his heroes, including his father, who flew for Pan American World Airlines for many years, and Bill Bixby, who featured in The Magician in the 1970s.
His father was a Pan American World Airways pilot for many years. William Bixby was an actor. He had a fantasy that he would spend the rest of his life in the air.
Yet, life got in the way, and despite the fact that he acquired his pilot’s license at a young age, he continued to work in the field of technology. This was despite the fact that life got in the way.
«When I got married and started a family, my ambitions to convert an airplane into a house had to take a back seat. I had to put them on the back burner.
He stated in an interview with Newsweek that «developing a family and a job was a terrific experience; I did well and earned a lot of money creating software» (Building a family and a job was a great experience).
But when he and his wife made the decision to get a divorce, he felt it was time to take stock of where his life had taken him up to that point and where he desired it to take him in the future.
He did this by writing down his thoughts about where he wanted his life to go.
He made the decision to follow his desire of refurbishing an airplane, transforming it into a residence, and christening the project «Project Freedom» because one of his friends had reassured him at the time that «he was free.»
Immediately following the conclusion of his divorce, Captain Joe started working on the massive project on April Fool’s Day in 2011, and he did not finally move into his aircraft house until January of the following year.
Although at initially he intended to buy a Boeing 747, he quickly came to the realization that even if he managed to negotiate a decent price for it, he would still need to spend around half a million dollars to have it shipped.
This caused him to abandon his original plan. As a direct consequence of this, he came to the conclusion that he would rather acquire an aircraft from Spirit Airlines that was a DC-9-41.
In addition to that, he purchased one-half of a crashed McDonnell Douglas MD-80 passenger airliner that was located in Arkansas. His children did not approve of it in the least when they saw it.
Throughout the subsequent months, he had it entirely refurbished, and he transformed the two half-planes into the perfect mansion in which to accomplish his ambitions and achieve his dreams.
He is now the proud owner of a house that comes complete with an office, three bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen.
After devoting a significant amount of effort and many hours to the process of repairing and building everything, he is now the proud owner of a house that comes complete with these features.
The fact that he has his very own wine room is even more astounding.
In addition to that, hidden underneath it is a library as well as a playroom for his children, who are now in their early twenties.
Axline intends to make some modifications to the plane in order to give it a more contemporary feel. The last time he refurbished the plane was ten years ago. He gives us his word that he is continuing to work on the Project Freedom.
And what about the years that will follow? Although Captain Joe is unsure of what lies ahead for him, he is confident that he does not want to spend the rest of his life working on airplanes.
«This is simply the beginning of the next chapter of my dreams; I do not plan on staying here for the rest of my life.»
My next objective is to construct a castle on a lake anywhere in the world. ‘I have seen a spot that I enjoy, but I don’t want to spoil it by talking about it,’ he explains.
Simply watch the movie that can be found below to get an inside look at Captain Joe’s airplane residence!
