Recycling voodoo: your TV was an aircraft

Voodoo practices are based on the belief that there is a great transition from one life to another. Just like with voodoo, a perished plane may find a chance for second life and reincarnate not only as parts of other planes, but also within your Blackberry, Samsung or iPhone. Smartphone’s are made from at least 50% recycled content, including the aircraft that was in the air just 10 years ago.

As the aviation becomes more eco-friendly, it is not only sustainability that leads to the dismantling of an aircraft, but also the cost of materials. For instance, companies recover aluminium, fibber composites, steel and textiles from recycling old aircraft. AFRA (Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association) estimates that over the next 20 years, 12,000 airplanes worth $1.3 trillion will be at the end of service life. The voodoo process for many aircraft begins in the boneyard, where retired airplanes are parked.

Reincarnation process

The process of reincarnation takes time. The recycling of composites is normally a two-step procedure: first, a mechanical process, during which composites are separated from other aircraft materials; the second process recovers materials of sufficient quality, allowing them to be reintroduced to industry.

Massive machines are used to demolish the airplane. Afterwards, dismantled parts travel to a processing plant, where a powerful magnet separates components used as raw materials to produce circuit boards for phones, computers and TVs. AFRA member companies each year scrap and disassemble a third of approximately 400 to 450 globally retired aircraft, producing up to 30,000 tons of aluminium and 1,800 tons of other specialty alloy metals.

Aircraft zombies

Haitian folklore believes that voodoo helps a soul to come back to the body; in cases, when the soul cannot meet the new body, the raised corpse is literally called zombie in Haitian French. One of this “zombies” is serving as a hotel in Costa Rica. Stunning views of the Pacific Ocean can be seen from the windows of Costa Verde, while the wild life of monkeys can be observed from the wing of the airplane. The Boeing 727 had its airframe salvaged from its airport-resting place in San Jose.

Another aircraft voodoo “practitioner”, Bruce Campbell, the creator of AirplaneHome.com, has converted a Boeing 727-200 aircraft and resurrected the fuselage as his new home. Bruce has adapted his daily life to live onboard an airplane. 64-years-old engineer bought an old Boeing for around $100,000 and spent decade transforming it. Bruce Campbell’s ideas do not stop with simple housing, as he plans to re-transform planes into crucial tsunami lifeboats for the local community in Japan. According to Campbell, fuel tanks (primarily the wings) are especially well sealed and highly durable floating canisters. With proper tethering which allows not only substantial horizontal drift, but also a vertical rise and flexibility, they make a reliable and superb lifeboat. Furthermore, this can be accomplished on budget, using a readily available resources discarded as garbage.

Invading the body

There is one god in voodoo, yet many spirits, which are eager to invade the body. The Voodoo doll is used to represent the spirit’s transformation to a specific object. Similarly, an aircraft wingtip can become a table. MotoArt is a California-based company, creating furniture from salvaged aircraft parts: Jacobs Radial engine coffee table, 747 Jet Liner bed, 707 cowling mirrors. Many other plane parts are represented as pieces of furniture in this futuristic and modern affair.

So be careful not to crack your new coffee table, as somewhere an aircraft or an electronic device may have an unusual reaction to it...