Guy Who Owns A Boeing 707 For Private Use Tells Us All To Cut Down On Our Carbon Emissions
Another day, another limousine liberal hypocrite.
His serious aviation habit means he is hardly the best person to lecture others on the environment. But John Travolta went ahead and did it anyway.
The 53-year-old actor, a passionate pilot, encouraged his fans to “do their bit” to tackle global warming.
But although he readily admitted: “I fly jets”, he failed to mention he actually owns five, along with his own private runway.
Clocking up at least 30,000 flying miles in the past 12 months means he has produced an estimated 800 tons of carbon emissions – nearly 100 times the average Briton’s tally.
Travolta made his comments this week at the British premiere of his movie, Wild Hogs.
He spoke of the importance of helping the environment by using “alternative methods of fuel” – after driving down the red carpet on a Harley Davidson.
Travolta, a Scientologist, claimed the solution to global warming could be found in outer space and blamed his hefty flying mileage on the nature of the movie business.
But his appointment as a “serving ambassador” for the Australian airline Qantas doesn’t seem to have much to do with the movies. Nor does a recent, two-month round-the-world flying trip.
“It [global warming] is a very valid issue,” Travolta declared. “I’m wondering if we need to think about other planets and dome cities.
“Everyone can do their bit. But I don’t know if it’s not too late already. We have to think about alternative methods of fuel.
Maybe we wouldn’t have to be thinking about alternative methods of fuel if John Travolta weren’t burning all the fuel up in his private fleet of airplanes.
Here’s a description of Travolta’s extravagant lifestyle as an amateur pilot:
‘I called my son Jett and I wanted to call my daughter Qantas, but my wife wouldn’t let me.” John Travolta was, he says, only joking - about his daughter - although this self-confessed “airline geek” just happens to own a former Qantas jet. And what a jet: a 600mph, 134ft 6in long, 250,000lb, 1964 Boeing 707-138B airliner. The 49-year-old Hollywood actor also just happens to park this classic aircraft in the backyard of his elegant new Florida home. As any self-respecting Hollywood star does. A Gulfstream executive jet keeps it company. The house, meanwhile, looks like a take on an art deco or Bauhaus airport terminal of the 1930s complete with an ersatz control tower rising from the roof.
Keeping up with the Travoltas is, it would appear, a touch more challenging than keeping up with the old school Joneses, whose wildest neighbour-blowing ambition might stretch, if they happen to be among the 650,000 private pilots in the US, to a Cessna-152. That is the chug-along, piston-engined plane most amateur pilots learn to fly in. Yours for 20,000 bucks, second-hand.
A full-blown Boeing, capable of flying around the world - which it did, in 2002, with Travolta in old-style captain’s uniform at the controls - is slightly more expensive to buy and run, and pretty unbeatable in the one-upmanship stakes. Unless, that is, the Joneses could run to a Jumbo jet. There are plenty of pre-owned models on the market for a few million bucks apiece. Travolta can fly one, but has yet to trade up from his 707 to a bigger Boeing. Not that there would be a problem chez Travolta with a 747. The airstrip that serves Jumbolair, the fly-in Florida development where the family airport stands, is 1.4 miles long. The main runways at Heathrow might be half-a-mile or so longer, but are not readily accessible to those living in the flanking estates of Heston, Hatton Cross and Hounslow even if they pitched together to buy a second-hand Tiger Moth.
Travolta’s is surely the ultimate boys’ fantasy home made real. Aside from the parking lots for the brace of jets, there is a garden in the guise of a heliport, further parking for at least six swanky cars, a swimming pool with swirling hot tub, that 1.4-mile runway, a gym and stables for the 75 horses down the road.
Here’s a picture of Travolta’s home:
Personally, I think his place is pretty flippin’ sweet. I wish I could afford something like that, and as a capitalist conservative I’m not at all against Travolta being able to afford it for himself. But when Travolta is telling me to get rid of my SUV while he’s got a couple of jets parked in his driveway I can’t help but think of him as a jerk.
