A dad has buried a Boeing 737 he snapped up on Facebook for just £4,000 (~$5,364) in his back garden – and plans to turn it into an underground war bunker and party pad.
Madcap engineer Dave Billings, 45, lowered the three-ton Bmibaby Boeing 737-500 fuselage into a 14ft-deep hole at his Derbyshire home, where it will become part of an incredible subterranean hideout.
The scrapped jet will be linked to a sprawling nuclear bunker Dave has spent years building beneath his property in Hilton, inspired by classic POW film The Great Escape.
The ambitious project, which has already cost at least £50,000 (~$67,053), features a maze of tunnels, hidden rooms and secret entrances – and Dave reckons it could even keep his family off-grid for months if World War Three broke out.
Dramatic footage shows the giant aircraft shell being slowly winched into the ground by a team of helpers last month.
Dave now plans to install a lift shaft hidden inside a traditional red phone box, which will carry visitors down into the buried plane.
The engineer said his eight-year-old son Oliver, who is obsessed with aircraft, inspired the purchase – although wife Beth needed a bit more convincing.
He said: “Beth did wonder why I was spending money on an old plane and said it was junk but she’s coming round now.
“It’s primarily a fun thing to have and a place for us to have parties and relax but it could be made into a fall out shelter.
“The whole thing will be buried under concrete and soil so the top will be around two-and-a-half feet underground.
“It will have electricity and water but we are also putting solar panels on the top and it has a borehole to a water supply.
“The plane toilet will be converted into a usable toilet connected to our septic tank.
“The structure will have its own ventilation system too.
“Depending on the amount of food we have down there, we could be off grid for a long time if need be.”
Dave insists the bunker is more about fun than survival, despite its ability to double as a shelter in the event of a major conflict.
He said: “I’m still building this for fun at the moment.
“If I was a prepper, I’d be stopping everything else to get on with it.
“I do these things because they’re cool, I enjoy it. But this one’s a cool thing that’s got a purpose; it can be classed as functionable.
“If things escalate and it is going to be needed, I can speed the job up, but I don’t think anyone will bomb the Derbyshire Dales.”
Dave bought the stripped-out fuselage with friends in December 2025 and transported it home for £4,000.
He estimates it will cost another £8,000 (~$10,730) in concrete, £3,000 (~$4,024) in reinforcing mesh and £2,000 (~$2,682) in insulation before the aircraft is fully buried and secured underground.
That’s before factoring in the food, drink and beer he plans to stock inside.
Alongside barrels for the bar, Dave hopes to store enough supplies to last between three and six months.
He has documented the incredible project on his YouTube channel, Tornado Dave, and says he plans to have it finished by next February
Dave added: “Beth said it must be finished before our tenth wedding anniversary so I’ve got a very firm deadline to meet.”
He also aims to apply for retrospective planning permission for the project.
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