00:03I've dreamed of converting an airplane into an RV since I was eight years old.
00:08In our family, everybody built their motorhomes. My dad, my aunts, my uncles.
00:12It was just something I thought you did. We joked that we probably built this
00:18airplane three times before we got something right because it just took
00:21that many times to figure stuff out. There was an airplane I liked called the
00:29F-4 Phantom. They called them the Fabulous Phantoms back in the 70s. My wife likes
00:33flamingos and that was kind of her idea. So Fabulous Phantoms became the Fabulous
00:38Flamingo and that's where she's at today. My son actually located the fuselage of
00:44the airplane in Rolla, Missouri. When we had the opportunity to buy it, we had to do
00:49it. The condition of the airplane when we originally saw it was very poor. It had
00:55been on the ground for about 30 years. Within three months, Gino and his son
00:59Hans managed to fuse the plane with the chassis of an old delivery truck he owned.
01:04The process that we used to merge the two was very hillbilly scientific. We pulled
01:11the truck next to the airplane while the airplane was on a flatbed trailer and then basically
01:16took measurements, started cutting it and then we would set the airframe onto the chassis
01:21and see what else we needed to do. It's exciting and challenging. Every day it was just fun.
01:27The plane Gino adapted was a 1943 Douglas R4D. Originally flown by the Navy in South America,
01:35the FAA then bought it to use as a test plane before a tornado put it out of action. It
01:41took
01:41about a year to get the vehicle ride worthy and another two years to fine tune the details.
01:48The hardest part was getting everything to work together. Each system I could figure out on its
01:54own, but when you had to integrate so many other things in there with the truck, you know, airplanes
01:59don't go down the road real easy. These fenders are the actual engine cowlings off of this airplane.
02:10On some of the initial photos we took, you can see them laying next to the airplane in the front.
02:14We added the mirrors and we definitely wanted to go retro, so we got them off of a 1970s Ford
02:20pickup truck.
02:21The logo that's on the side of the airplane was the FAA logo since they were the last operators of
02:26the airplane. We also left the emergency exits. You can operate these from the inside on both sides of
02:32the airplane, so like when your stewardess is talking about your safety exits. We took tip tanks off of
02:37an airplane and voila, that has become our fender now. If it were a half inch wider, it'd be illegal.
02:45This is the cockpit of the Fabulous Flamingo. The overhead panel, when we got it, everything was stripped
02:51out, so we repopulated it with a lot of cool stuff. A lot of military things up there like flare
02:56dispensers and missile fire. The intercom for the airplane actually works. The 1940s, when you talk
03:02through it, it actually talks. Over here, this would normally be all hydraulics in the airplane. Of course,
03:08we eliminated all that. The two lights that are there, when you had paratroopers on board, whenever it was
03:13ready for them to jump over the target, they'd switch it to green. Moving back, this is my youngest son,
03:18Garrett's bed, and back here, we have the master suite. Brother, you're flying down the streets in
03:24first class style. We're in Oklahoma. It was 80 or 85, the speed limit. We brought her up to that,
03:32and that was about as fast as I think I want to go in it. The airplane would actually take
03:36off
03:37right about that speed, so the aerodynamics start kicking in, and really not a good thing.
03:44The vehicle means a lot to me, just because the amount of time that's in it. I look back at
03:49the
03:49day one pictures. Sometimes I can't believe I did it, and it means a lot to see people get it.
03:54So
03:54excited. The ride is made out of pure love. It's a labor of love.
