Everyone here knows who John Travolta is. There is no problem there, we are reasonably sure. However, we're pretty sure that everyone knows varying degrees of information about the man. People will know that he is a Scientologist. No surprise there (anymore). People will also know that he dressed up in drag for the film version of the musical Hairspray. But we're just wondering how many people here know that John Travolta happens to have a home that doubles as an airport! That might be the nuttiest thing in his life.
Travolta is a pilot but because he is also ridiculously wealthy, he has his own airport! He has two sizeable planes parked at his house...because why wouldn't he? In addition to that, he is also a fan of cars. Strangely enough, he is a fan of rather specific cars and doubles and sometimes even triples up on the number of cars he owns. He has three Ford T-Birds. He has two Merc 280SLs...then he has a bit of a variety thrown in and around those.
So, let's take a deeper dive into the bizarre world that is the life of luxury of John Travolta and look at his car collection and his airport of a house. There is something simply unreal about this man and the way he lives. At least we can enjoy it by proxy to some extent.
21 Away In The Woods
Tucked away in the woods at his Ocala home, John Travolta hides an airport! Of course, this is not really all that hidden because his place is not the only home in the 550-acre area that has runway access. In fact, the area in which Travolta lives is called Jumbolair Estates and it specifically caters to people who want to have runway access right from the doorstep. We did not realize that there were so many people who wanted to and could afford to fly pretty well in and out of their own homes. It's almost overwhelming to think about the money involved.
20 Rolls-Royce Phantom
Now, here is a car that people cannot really talk all that badly about. The Rolls-Royce Phantom, no matter what edition or what year is and always will be a true car of luxury. Essentially, someone is driving around an apartment that costs more than 50 apartments, each ten times the size of the machine. However, it's not like John Travolta doesn't have the money to keep one of these gassed up and on the road...not like he needs to though because he can fly out right from his doorstep with his runway driveway. It would be sacrilege if he just keeps this on display without driving it though.
19 Bed & Breakfast
So, while this is not directly attached to the house or the airport, on the property on which sits Travolta's airport home, there is a bed and breakfast for his visitors. That way, they don't have to stay in the massive airport house...they can have a massive house all to themselves so they can feel a little bit of the luxury that Travolta must feel every single day of his life. But let's be hoenst...if people are staying at his bed and breakfast, they are probably already luxurious people in one way or another. So, visitors essentially get their own mansion at this property.
18 Jaguar XJ6
Here is a car with quite a bit of history. The Jaguar XJ6 has been around since 1968. That is the very year that the Jaguar company itself actually started up across the pond. And two years after this incredible debut, the XJ6 was named the company's flagship car. This has been such a successful car for the company that it is still in production to this day. Of course, the looks have changed considerably but that doesn't phase Travolta. He doesn't need a new one every time one comes out. The Jag is not an iPhone after all.
17 The Happy Couple
Here is John Travolta and his darling wife, Kelly Preston. They look pretty happy...and let's be honest here, they have some pretty good reasons to be happy. Sure, there are celebrities who can't handle the life and find themselves in some level of despair or another but we are pretty sure that Travolta and Preston have found something that works. After all, if they want to go to Greenwich Village for a hip dinner, they just have to hop in one of their planes and leave a couple hours early. That's a lucky and happy couple if anyone were to ask us.
16 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SL
John Travolta is a bit of a Merc fan, at least when it comes to the 280SL anyway. This car first hit the market back in 1967 and had a pretty brief production run from then until 1971. That is when the R107 350SL took over as Merc's production car in that slot. Either way, there were nearly 24,000 of these cars built in that short amount of time. Only 882 of these cars were ordered with the ZF 5-speed transmission. We are not entirely sure just which version Travolta has, but considering he does have the ability to fly planes out right from his house, we're guessing he can manage a 5-speed manual transmission.
15 Interior Design
This is just some of the interior to Travolta's airport home. Now, it is a pretty impressive thing to have a big 707 as well as a little jet sitting in the front yard that can just be flown out of there whenever he pleases...but making the interior look like something a little boy who is obsessed with airplanes would have in his bedroom...it is a bit much, we have to be honest. There is something a little too obsessive here, we think. Sure, it's a cool enough mural but it is a bit tacky and a little gaudy considering the style of the rest of the place. But we guess Travolta can afford to be eccentric.
14 1970 Mustang Boss 302
Alrighty, here is a car that could be a lot of fun. This is something we are sure people would not mind having in their garage so they can tear up the roads whenever they feel like it. This is one of the mean-looking muscle cars to come from Ford before the 80s detracted from the Mustang reputation. At any rate, this 1970 Boss 302 Mustang is the very car that Travolta uses in the film Trading Paint which obviously stars him...and his film wife in the piece is none other than Shania Twain...which is rather strange, we have to admit.
13 Fancy Fancy
Here is a much fancier end of the house that doesn't have all that ridiculous aviation-themed mural that looks like a little boy's bedroom. This feels way more like what a celebrity airport mansion home might look like. However, we are pretty surprised that Travolta would have so many windows on the ground floor, looking out to his property. How many people from the media must try and sneak past the gates of the Jumbolair Estates community to try and get a photo or two of him and Kelly Preston? Either way though, this is a pretty luxurious-looking place, that is for sure.
12 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SL
Yes, that is correct. John Travolta has two of these cars. It's not good enough to have one, apparently. The reality of this choice could be a difference in transmission. There was a special 5-speed offer with the ZF transmission, as well as the standard 4-speed so that could be the difference between the two of them, which means that one of them is worth far more than the other. This is not a car to go racing in, especially with only 168 horses powering the thing, but considering that it ran from 67 to 71, it's not a bad bit of power for a little luxury car.
11 Poolside
Well, considering that Travolta's airport home is out in the middle of nowhere Florida, it makes perfect sense that there should be a fancy pool in the back yard. There is even a water slide at the end of the pool. That's fun, for sure. Orlando might only be a 10-minute flight from Travolta's front door, but why bother dealing with all of the fans at the beach when he could just lounge about at his own pool and just gaze up at how gorgeous his home is? We do wonder if he ever sits back and just looks at his life and thinks about how incredibly well off he truly is.
10 1964 Chevelle Malibu
Well, it is always good to know that in addition to the incredible amount of luxury that Travolta surrounds himself with, he also digs into the more blue-collar-styled vehicles out there. Sure, the 64 Malibu is not exactly a cheap car to find these days (unless it's just a husk to restore) but it certainly is not a Rolls-Royce. It's not exactly a Mercedes-Benz. And it's definitely not a Boeing 707. This car is probably one of the closest things that connects Travolta to the regular, everyday normal guy. That's just fact. And it doesn't hurt that this thing is just a beautiful classic.
9 The Little Guy
To be completely honest here, this is not even the "little guy". The little guy is the Eclipse that Travolta also has kicking around his airport home. This is the mid-sized jet that he has. The Bombardier Challenger. This jet is a bit of an older on from the 90s but that doesn't change the fact that the price range on this thing goes from between $2 million and $2.4 million. And that is just one of several planes Travolta owns. That's actually nothing, especially when one discovers that the price of the Boeing 707 that Travolta also has is worth at least $10 million.
8 1955 Ford Thunderbird
The 1955 Ford Thunderbird is the first model year of the first generation of the Thunderbird. This car was built in response to the 1953 Chevy Corvette that was put on display at Motorama that year. This was meant as a "personal" car and was the first two-seater Ford since the 1930s, believe it or not. The whole idea of this car was to compete not only with the Corvette but also with the Euro sports cars that were becoming more and more popular State-side. Who knew that the T-Bird would eventually take such a different turn from those Euro cars?
7 Control Tower
Yeah, it does make perfect sense that if one is going to have their own airport at home that they should also have their own control tower at home as well. It must have cost a fortune. Considering the Boeing 707 cost Travolta $10 million, we can only guess that all of the communications and flight equipment in the tower, as well as the building of the tower itself, cost many many millions on its own. Again, that is only our guess but let's be realistic if this is the one building that has clear chainlink fencing around it...it's probably worth quite a bit.
6 1956 Ford Thunderbird
John Travolta really has a thing for the Ford Thunderbird, it would appear. We have to admit that we love the white walls on this one, against that flaming red. There is something about the Thunderbird that really speaks to Travolta, it would seem. And it seems that he really loves those first generation T-Birds as well. This is the 1956 T-Bird. The only real change between this one and the 55 is the addition of some ventilation, added trunk space by mounting the spare on the back, and an optional block V8. Not bad changes by any stretch of the imagination. This car only saw 15.5 thousand units sold though.
5 Aerial View
Take a look at that place. And Travolta's property is so vast that there are actually quite a few things missing from this aerial view. One might notice that the bed and breakfast mansion is not in the frame here. No one expected Travolta to put it right next to his home, right? That's what personal drivers are for. The control tower for his airport home is also not even in this frame. This is actually just a shot of his house, directly, with only one of the planes at home. Do we think that he took this picture himself? Or is this a drone shot that someone took, noticing that Travolta was not home that day?
4 1957 Ford Thunderbird
Here is the third and final Thunderbird that Travolta owns. This is also the last year of the first generation T-Birds. From 55-57 was the duration of the first generation T-Birds and Travolta owns one from each model year. What is different about the 57? Well, this car put the spare back in the trunk, bumped up the fins, and gave an engine option for the 312 with four-barrel superchargers that ran with the power of 300 or 340 horses respectively. That was not a bad improvement to the other two and this model did sell the most of all three first-gen T-Birds.
3 The Driveway
This is just the driveway to the home, without panning out to the runway attached to the driveway. And what do we find just casually parked out front, surprisingly far away from the front door? This would be Travolta's 1955 Ford Thunderbird. We're guessing that the car was parked so far from the door because this photo was staged to some extent but we're willing to forgive that considering he probably didn't even drive the car into that spot. He probably paid someone to do it for him so he didn't have to do deal with the photographers from Architectural Digest.
2 2003 TVR Tuscan
Here is a bit of a strange one for Travolta to own compared to the rest of his car collection...at least so far as we can figure it. There is something rather strange to see all of those classic cars and then finally be put face to face with a TVR Tuscan. Don't get us wrong at all, it is a pretty cool car and it packs anywhere from 350 to 440 horsepower. That isn't too bad...even though Travolta's 57 Thunderbird stands to have almost as much horsepower as the base model of the TVR. Oh well. Either way, it fits with how strange Travolta's life of luxury seems to be.
1 Flying Overhead
We just can't get enough of the aerial shots of this ridiculous homestead that John Travolta has built here for himself and his wife. There is something incredibly unreal here in that no one would ever expect for someone to have an airport home, let alone an airport home on a 550 acre bit of land that caters specifically to super-rich people who want that same thing. Jumbolair Estates seems just completely made up, but here is Travolta's home with three visible planes: the Boeing 707, the Bombardier Challenger, and the Eclipse. Not to mention the 10 cars and trucks visible from this vantage point.
Sources: CBSNews, BusinessInsider
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