Man Recreates PanAm 747 in His Garage

Nov. 25, 2009— -- As a child, Anthony Toth visited nearly every aviation museum in North America. But the models of airplanes and displays of memorabilia left him unimpressed.

"I really wanted something that would appeal to all my senses," said the 42-year-old executive of United Airlines. "I wanted to be able to sit in the cabin, to be able to look at all the things that were in there. And even maybe experience what the onboard product might have been like."

What he really wanted was to recreate his experience flying internationally as a child from his boyhood home in Ohio to visit relatives in Rome and Budapest, Hungary. So, when no museum met his criteria, Toth decided to create one for himself. Twenty years in the making, the result is a recreation of a first-class cabin of a Boeing 747 from the now-defunct Pan American World Airways, his favorite airline as a child.

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The cabin, made partially with parts salvaged from real Pan Am 747 cabins of the 1970s and 1980s, is ensconced in the garage of his three-level condo in Redondo Beach, Calif.

"Because the pieces are actually very expensive, I was only able to buy one or two things every year," Toth said. "So I would make one big investment in maybe overhead bins or side wall panels or seats."

Many of those parts came from so-called airplane graveyards, such as one in the Mojave Desert outside Los Angeles, a couple of hours' drive from Toth's home.

"I would sift through pieces, painstakingly, in the hot sun, in order to find the piece that I'm looking for," recalled Toth.

Hollywood productions routinely scrounge jet graveyards for parts which can command a fairly high price. For example, an airport departure screen with flight numbers and times cost Toth $800. The 14 first-class seats ran between $800 and $1,200 for each pair. Door handles from a 747 were $250 each. An overhead bin went for $350. And Toth paid well over $1,500 for the console table in the center of the cabin. In total, Toth estimates he has spent more than $50,000 on the project.