I happened to follow a Tennesee trucker (Gentry and Sons) who was contracted to transport the remains of the Elvis Jet from Roswell, NM to Florida, with a stop in Nashville, TN for a brief visit at Graceland.

Today, a video of the arrival and unloading of the aircraft was released. Good grief, the way they "disassembled" the jet was horrifying! However, it became obvious why it would never become airworthy again. There is simply too much corrosion.

 

I have been watching this guy who bought it at auction, I get the impression he is running out of money fast, probably the reason they sawed the wings off. He is quite a character so nothing about this project surprises me, and it's fun watching him lose all his money on a silly project like this.

Yes Elvis once owned it but he sold it and someone else used it for a while, and that person stopped making payments on it so the engines got repossessed, he had a loan for the jet and a separate loan for the engines, and that is how this plane lost its engines. The rest sat in the boneyard for decades. This jet wasn't that important to Elvis he was just a brief owner for a time. His beloved jets are still on display. I personally don't see the value in this jet, it is novelty because Elvis once owned it, but there are far better Elvis artifacts then this one. 

 

Edited March 13, 20233 yr by Matthew Kane

Well, I did some further investigation, and learned that he is worth around $850,000 and lives in Orlando on his parents' farm. His income from YouTube, merchandise and sponsorships. He is also a pilot with a commercial license and has a passion for airplanes.

He is evidently a real philanthropist. He and another pilot had delivered diapers and other donated children's needs for hurricane relief in Fort Myers, FL.

Some Karen complained to the FAA that he and a fellow private pilot of operating a Part 135 flights! They both paid for fuel and other expenses out of their own pockets. Here is a video of him flying his C310 home from a trip to Dallas. He explains the details of the arrogant and abusive FAA investigator's conduct:

 

There are some, let's be honest, jerks out there who like to twit at Youtube pilots. Anyone see when Premier1Driver got reported to the FAA for saying he was clear of the runway like, half a second before he was actually clear?

 

He seems like a nice guy (been following his channel for a year or so) but not the smartest when it comes to financial decisions. I consider him the Tyler Hoover (from Hoovy's Garage, the car channel) of aviation. Buys (usually) borderline wrecks that'll burn badly into his finances while making/keeping them work, then flipping them at a loss because that's what the audience likes watching and brings in the advertising money from youtube. 

He seriously thought from what I saw in one of his videos that he would be able to get the Jetstar airworthy again, and a lot of his audience agreed apparently. Another youtuber was also going to bid on it and thought the same thing, but didn't have the budget to get in a bid.

Any expert of course would have taken one glance at the pile of garbage sitting out there in that desert and decided in an instant it'd never be more than a static museum piece. It's too far gone, too many missing parts and pieces. There are no more engines left (apart from a set in a museum, and they're not going to part with them). And of course the manufacturing of spares isn't going to provide FAA approved parts so it'll never be certified for commercial operations even if you manage to hand build everything you need, making it pointless as you won't be able to recoup the cost of the restoration by offering rides at a price.