A Guy Salvaged One Of Howard Hughes’ Old Planes – And Transformed It Into The Coolest Houseboat Ever

But where did it all start for the Flying Penthouse? With Hughes’ passion for airplanes, of course. The billionaire had his fingers in many pies during his lifetime, though, whether it was through making movies or concocting new inventions. And underlying everything was the man’s unusual behavior, which rumors have suggested was fueled by his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As a teenager, Hughes had developed a fierce passion for both aviation and film. It was this latter enthusiasm that most enthralled him in early adulthood, though, and he set off for Hollywood with his immense inheritance in tow. He wasted no time in investing his riches into the movie industry.

Hughes pumped nearly $4 million into making a war film called Hell’s Angels, which was then the most expensive movie ever made. He went through three separate directors during production, before eventually taking the helm himself. It seems he was the right man for the job, though. The movie was a massive hit and rocketed Hughes into the Tinseltown elite.

Hughes later purchased RKO Pictures, which solidified his place as one of the most influential men in Hollywood. But he couldn’t stay at the top forever. And given his erratic personality, it’s hardly a surprise that he soon tired of the movies. In 1955 he sold RKO, allowing him to wholeheartedly concentrate on his other major passion. 

Even as he’d been working on movies, Hughes had always maintained an interest in airplanes. In 1932, in fact, he’d set up the Hughes Aircraft Company in California. Initially made up of just a few employees, the business was started with one key aim in mind: to construct the greatest racing aircraft on Earth.

The first of the Hughes Aircraft Company’s projects focused on the refurbishing of an old military plane. Their efforts were obviously successful, as in 1934 Hughes used the craft in a flying competition. And traveling at an average speed of over 180 miles per hour, the movie mogul cruised into first place. Yet Hughes wasn’t content with having just one win to his name. 

The following year, Hughes was racing his company’s latest craft, the H-1. He flew the nimble racer at a mind-shattering pace of 352 miles per hour, setting a new world speed record. But the flight very nearly ended in disaster when the plane exhausted its fuel supply. Hughes was forced to perform an emergency landing, narrowly avoiding catastrophe!

Unperturbed, the tycoon set out again to achieve a new flying record. This time, he wanted to master the transcontinental route – California to New Jersey. He purchased a new plane, modified it, and set off at the start of 1936. Again, he was successful and touched down as a record-breaker. But still the aviator kept on trying to break more.

One effort in 1937 was particularly close to ending disastrously. After modifying his H-1 aircraft, Hughes set off once again from California to New Jersey – hoping to smash his own cross-country time. The oxygen mask he was wearing stopped working along the way, though, and he nearly lost consciousness. Even so, Hughes still logged yet another winning time, cementing his status as one of the greatest aviators on Earth.

Ever the fanatic, Hughes pressed on in his search for glory and prestige in the world of flight. This time he decided to travel around the world. How did he fare, you ask? He smashed the existing record by four days! Clearly, Hughes was proving himself to be a total master of aviation.

But this around-the-world flight would be the last record-breaker of Hughes’ career. From this point on, he turned his attention to designing airplanes for the military. His most notable craft from this period was the Spruce Goose. And though it was then considered the “largest plane of all time,” it flew only once, in 1947.

By the end of the ’60s, Hughes’ life started to parallel the fantastical films he had once created. The billionaire was involved in designing aircraft for space travel, for one thing. He was even roped into a secret government plot. That’s right: the CIA used him as a distraction while they sneakily retrieved a sunken Soviet submarine from the ocean’s depths.

None of these more outlandish pursuits took away from Hughes’ business empire, however, and he eventually came to be the richest person in the United States. He acquired hotels and casinos as well as a TV station. Rumor has it that he would order the network to play the movies he liked late at night, and if he fell asleep he’d ring the station and have them start the film all over again for him!

Of course, Hughes’ immense achievements in the worlds of business and aviation were ultimately underpinned by what seemed to be severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. He struggled with this from an early age, particularly fixating on the idea of germs. And the affliction proved to be a terribly disruptive force through to adulthood and his later years.

Towards the end of his life, in fact, Hughes had become increasingly reclusive as his health really began to fail him. Eventually, this led him to fully retreat from the public eye entirely. The troubled billionaire locked himself away in a string of hotel rooms, where he languished and repeatedly watched movies on a loop.

The end came for Hughes in a somewhat fitting fashion: in the sky. Though the aviator had survived more than his fair share of dicey flights – not to mention several serious crashes – he’d always emerged with his life. But in 1976 he was a passenger on board a jet when he succumbed to kidney failure and passed away.

Hughes had lived a unique life, marked by astonishing achievements in many different fields. Aviation was a huge part of his life, of course, and he left his mark firmly upon it. His planes were legendary – especially the Spruce Goose. But that colossal craft was far from the only of Hughes’ airplanes with a wild story.

Take Hughes’ 307 Stratoliner, for example. When Boeing first released the model in 1940, it was top of the range. And as the plane was able to reach a greater height than any others around at the time, naturally it caught the eye of aviation obsessive Hughes.

Hughes invested in a 307 Stratoliner, which he then decked out and made his own. The millionaire’s modifications turned the aircraft into an especially luxurious space – complete with a bar, living area, bedroom, and bathrooms. And when his work was finished, the plane became known as the “Flying Penthouse.”

After a while, though, Hughes found that he no longer had any use for this luxury craft. He put the Stratoliner up for sale, and the thing was eventually snapped up by a Texan who’d made a fortune in oil. From there, the plane was passed through multiple owners.

Disaster struck in the early 1960s, though, when Hughes’ former aircraft was wrecked by a hurricane. And while its owner at the time borrowed cash to get the plane back in working order, he failed to keep up his loan payments. So, the bank stripped the Stratoliner for parts, leaving it ruined and unable to ever fly again. It looked as though the Flying Penthouse’s story had come to an end.

Alas, there was another twist yet to come. The stripped and neglected plane made it to auction, where a pilot named Ken London put in an offer. With the minuscule sum of $62, he had purchased the shell of a former luxury aircraft. Sure, it couldn’t fly anymore – but London had other ideas.

Like Howard Hughes before him, London made some heavy modifications to the aircraft. But rather than turning it into a luxury jet, London went with another idea entirely: he converted it into a boat called the Londonaire. The former flying penthouse was now a fully functional yacht capable of traveling at more than 20 knots.

The aircraft – or rather, the boat, as it now was – was once again passed along through one or two different owners. But in 1981 it ended up in the possession of David Drimmer, who made the most of his new craft. And he appeared on the TV show Extreme Homes to shed light on how he came to find it.

Drimmer remarked, “I started looking for another boat to buy that I could afford that would have been suitable for living aboard. And so this boat just came along one day. It was advertised for one day in the classifieds. Didn’t say what it was, just a unique houseboat for sale. So, I went down and had a look at it and, of course, I was shocked.”

Presumably expecting to find a normal houseboat, Drimmer was now faced with this bizarre airplane floating on the water. It must have been a fascinating sight, but the vessel wasn’t exactly in the best shape. As he recalled, “It was a disaster. It looked awful, it was in severe disrepair, but gosh – I was just really intrigued with it.”

Curiosity got the better of Drimmer, and he bought the plane-boat for himself. Like the previous owners, he then set about modifying it to his own liking. This involved fixing up the hull of the boat section and redesigning its living space. He also decided to rename the craft Cosmic Muffin.

While decorating the inside of the craft, Drimmer made sure to retain as much of the original character of the cockpit as possible. In fact, he kept all the controls from its flying days in place. He did, however, have these buttons rewired so that they allowed for sailing.

As for the name, Drimmer has explained why he landed on Cosmic Muffin. He said, “I don’t know what it means. It’s a name that was given to the boat by Jimmy Buffett when he discovered the boat in 1992 and included it in his best-selling novel Where Is Joe Merchant?” So, now famous musician and entrepreneur Jimmy Buffett had also become part of this remarkable craft’s story.

Under Drimmer’s enthusiastic ownership, the Cosmic Muffin was completely revitalized. It also became one of the most unusual houseboats anywhere on the planet. But that’s not to say it wasn’t comfortable. As Drimmer explained in an interview with the TV show Offbeat America, he tried to make the vessel as homely as he possibly could. 

Yes, Drimmer attempted to make the Cosmic Muffin a delightfully cozy and comfy place to live. That meant he had to work on the bedroom, for starters. He recalled, “First thing I put in here as a bedroom was a waterbed, which was just delightful. Motion on the ocean.” Hard to argue with that!

Drimmer also kitted out the rest of the vessel with luxurious features. He remarked of the Cosmic Muffin, “It has all the comforts of home: a microwave, hot water. Everything you need.” As for the cockpit, Drimmer is more than aware of its historic importance. He said, “It’s really the heart of the entire plane-boat. It’s where Howard Hughes used to fly this airplane.”

Evidence of Hughes’ former ownership can be found throughout the plane-boat. Drimmer pointed out, “The surviving artifacts from when it was Hughes’ plane are the four aircraft chairs and the lovely bar... The bar is always open, and it’s fun just hanging out, just to be on board the boat.”

Though Drimmer was the owner of the plane-boat, he actually left it to someone else to captain the thing. He decided to enlist the help of one of his pals, a man named Aaron Kiss. Maybe Drimmer just couldn’t handle the immense responsibility of sailing such a historically significant craft himself. 

Listening to Kiss speak about sailing the Cosmic Muffin, though, Drimmer’s reluctance to sail is more understandable. As the captain explained in his own words, the task was far from an easy job. He said, “Driving the airplane-boat is probably best compared to driving a school bus on ice, backwards, downhill, blindfolded.”

But despite the Cosmic Muffin’s challenges, Kiss just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to become involved with such a unique vessel. As the skipper remarked, “This boat is irreplaceable. There’s only one, that’s it. So, if we crash it, it’s not like we can call the insurance company and have them bring us out a new fender.”

For almost two decades, Drimmer lived on the Cosmic Muffin. But by the year 2000, the time had come to move on and the craft was once again passed along. This time, it ended up becoming an exhibit at Howard Hughes’ Personal Aviation Collection at the Florida Air Museum.

The Cosmic Muffin is most certainly an unusual creation, but it’s also an ingenious example of recycling. After all, this was once a ruined airplane that was doomed to rust and disintegrate in a scrap heap. But with some effort and ingenuity, it was totally repurposed and used for something else entirely.

Only ten Boeing 307 Stratoliners were ever manufactured in the first place, so the Cosmic Muffin was always unique. But the fact that it was eventually owned by perhaps the most famous aviator in history made it even more special. And once Ken London and Dave Drimmer had made their respective modifications, the craft truly became one of a kind.