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“The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn't know what all the yelling was about. I didn't realize that my body was moving. It's a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said 'What'd I do? What'd I do?'”
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The Real Flying Elvis
In the 1950s Elvis Presley toured mostly by car. In fact, he and his band wore out a number of cars driving from city to city to perform. He rarely traveled by plane due in part to a troubled flight he had once in a small chartered plane.
In the 1960's Elvis didn't tour, but rather focused on his movie career. He often traveled by train and then later his custom bus to get back and forth between Memphis and Hollywood.
With the 1970s came Elvis' return to the concert stage and touring across America. The distance between concerts and the fast pace of the tour
schedules made flying a necessity and he started chartering larger jet planes. In April 1975 he decided to acquire his own jet. He sent his associate Joe Esposito to look for one. Joe found Elvis a Convair 880, a former 96-passenger Delta airliner.
Elvis paid $250,000 for the plane and spent over a half a million dollars more to have it customized to include a lounge with suede sofas and leather-topped game tables, a conference/dining room with leather recliner chairs, a sitting/guest bedroom, a master bedroom with a queen-size bed, and a fully equipped galley, and two half-baths with 24K gold-flecked sinks. Television, video and stereo systems, sky phones and gold-plated seat belt buckles were among the other appointments and accessories. With the refurbishment the jet acquired a new name, the "Lisa Marie" in honor of Elvis' daughter, and the nickname "Hound Dog I".
Elvis employed a full-time crew of four for his plane - Captain Elwood David, co-pilot Ron Strauss, flight engineer Jim Manning and flight attendant Carol Bouchere.
This Convair 880 was one of only 65 made by the Convair Division of General Dynamics Corporation of San Diego, California in 1958. It was called 880 based on its cruising speed in feet per second. It was a very fast plane but used a great
deal of fuel. It consumed 1,700 gallons per hour and using 2200 gallons on take-off alone. Used primarily by TWA, Delta, and Northeast Airlines, they became too expensive to operate and were retired in the wake of the oil crisis of the
early 1970s. Once, many of the decommissioned Convairs were housed in the Mojave Desert
where the climate protected their parts and wiring from decay. However, only a few now are
still in existence, having been scrapped in late 2000. Today, a group of volunteers called Team Convair 880 works to restore a plane known as Convair Ship 23 to air worthiness, determined to make this once proud bird fly again. Elvis' Convair, however, is permanently grounded, parked across the street from Graceland Mansion for the enjoyment of the Graceland visitors who take an on-board tour of the plane.
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Elvis' Lisa-Marie Convair 880 - #4 in Top Ten list!: In the list of the Top 10 Aircraft of the Rich and Famous, Elvis' Lisa-Marie jet comes in at number 4. Top of the list is Harrison Ford's Cessna Citation Jet - and surely the cutest is Jimmy Buffett's Albatross amphibian aircraft. From the website:
- "Although he owned other aircraft, Elvis bought his own personal jet airliner, a former Delta Air Lines Convair CV.880, in 1975 for the then-substantial sum of $250,000. He named it "Lisa Marie" after his daughter. Presley had the interior of the Convair 880 customized with 28 seats instead of the 110 seats with which the type was usually fitted in airline service. He also had the tail of the now-preserved jet painted with his personal "TCB" logo, which stands for "Takin' Care of Business." By the end of 2005, "Lisa Marie" was one of only nine CV.880s that remained, out of 65 originally built." Go here for the complete list. |
 
Memphis Airport 1970
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On 16 August 1977, 30 years ago Elvis Presley died. He has most probably been the biggest pop-rock star ever, he is still popular among millions of people. His house has become a shrine for pilgrims, his records are still sold and we still wonder his songs, his lifestyle, his career and I am sure that with his success story he is an idol for many young people.
So what do we know about his attraction to planes?
He owned 2 jets in his life.
(the following pictures are not of Elvis Presley’s jets. They were taken from the manufacturer’s website and Wikipedia)
Convair 880
 The Convair 880 was a jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics. It was designed to compete with the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 by being smaller, faster and safer, a niche that failed to create demand. Only 65 880s were produced over the lifetime of the production run from 1959 to 1962, and General Dynamics eventually withdrew from the airliner market after considering the 880 project a failure. Only 9 of these aircrafts are left in the world, none of them is airworthy and only one is preserved properly, Lisa Marie - the plane of Elvis Presley. It is parked in Graceland in Memphis and it is part of the Elvis museum.
Manufacturer: Convair
Maiden flight: January 27, 1959
Produced: 1959-1962
Number of aircrafts built: 65
Jetstar
 The JetStar originated as a private project within Lockheed, with an eye to winning a USAF requirement that was later dropped due to budget cuts. Lockheed decided to continue the project on their own for the business market. Noise regulations in the United States and high fuel consumption led to the development of the 731 JetStar, a modification program which added new Garrett AiResearch TFE731 turbofan engines and redesigned external fuel tanks to original JetStars. The 731 JetStar modification program was so successful that Lockheed produced 40 new JetStars, designated the JetStar II, from 1976 through 1979. The JetStar IIs were factory new aircraft with the turbofan engines and revised external fuel tanks. Both 731 JetStars and JetStar IIs have greatly increased range, reduced noise, and better runway performance compared to the original JetStars.
JetStar production totaled 204 aircraft by final delivery in 1978. Most original JetStars have been retired, but many 731 JetStars and JetStar IIs are still flying in various roles. A JetStar that was owned by Elvis Presley in his later years, named Hound Dog II, is on display at Graceland.
Maufacturer: Lockheed
Maiden flight: 4 September 1957
Produced: 1957 - 1978
Number of aircrafts built: 204
Both jets were sold by the family after the death of Elvis, but later they were bought back and parked in Graceland, Memphis and they serve as a part of the museum.
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Ron Strauss piloted this four-engine Convair 880 jet owned by Elvis
Ron Strauss has seen Elvis everywhere.
But he wasn't hallucinating.
Strauss, 59, flew the Lisa Marie, Elvis Presley's big private passenger jet named for his daughter, from 1975 until Elvis' death on Aug. 19, 1977.
Whether crisscrossing the nation on one of Elvis' many tours or making a late-night flight to Denver for peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, the job was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Strauss, a 40-year pilot.
"Elvis would come up to the cockpit just about every flight to say hello," recalled Strauss, a Marco Island resident since 1988. "He was a very nice guy, a very smart man. And he had unbelievable charisma."
The plane - a Convair 880 with the radio code name of "Hound Dog 1" - was a Delta Airlines passenger jet until Elvis bought it from an airplane broker and friend of Strauss. The broker recommended Strauss, who was familiar with that type of aircraft, to Elvis' father, Vernon Presley. The two met in Memphis and, soon after, the deal was finalized.
Thank you very much.
"They sent the plane to Dallas and they gutted it," Strauss said.
Close in size to a 707, the Lisa Marie was customized with plush sleeping quarters, a conference table, a lounge area, two lavatories and a well-stocked galley and bar.
"It could hold a maximum of 29 people, but usually there would be about eight or 10," Strauss said.
The first trip Strauss made on the Lisa Marie was a jaunt from Memphis to Las Vegas, where Elvis was due to perform.
"On tour, the itinerary was very structured," he said. "We would be on the road for two weeks at a time during the tours. Then we'd be back in Memphis for as long as a month sometimes."
Strauss, who has flown aircraft ranging from gliders and biplanes to Lear jets and 767s, holds an airline transport pilot certification, the highest rating issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. Strauss, a native of Fonda, Iowa, now flies 757s for UPS and owns a biplane for recreation.
Accompanying Strauss in the cockpit of the Lisa Marie was another pilot, Elwood David, and a flight engineer, Jim Manny. The flight crew was on call 24 hours a day. But Elvis, because of his fame and for security reasons, rarely traveled in daylight.
"He might call at one, two o'clock in the morning and say 'Let's go,'" Strauss said.
He remembers a trip to Denver, where Elvis wanted to bring his daughter and friends to a restaurant famed for its deluxe peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
Other recollections include a stay in Vail, Colo., where "Elvis wanted to buy five Cadillacs for some friends of his," Strauss recalled. "But one of them wanted a pickup, so Elvis got the pickup and four Cadillacs."
On occasion, members of the crew could bring along their wives or relatives, but Strauss remembers a trip to Honolulu when the crew was told they'd have to leave their spouses behind because the Lisa Marie would be filled to capacity.
When they made a stop in California on the way, however, Strauss and the others realized an incorrect passenger count had resulted in a few open seats after all. Elvis came to the cockpit, apologized for the error and insisted that Strauss make a call to book his wife, Betty, on a first-class seat on the next plane out of Memphis.
"I really wasn't that upset about it, but Elvis said if I didn't do it, he'd find himself another pilot," Strauss laughed.
Among the tokens Strauss has from his days of piloting the Lisa Marie is a gold chain with the inscription "TCB." The initials stand for "taking care of business," the motto of the Presley organization that was painted on the tail of the jet.
"Elvis gave those out to people he liked. He gave the 'TCB' chains to the guys and 'TLC' to women," he said.
Strauss also owns a '73 Corvette Stingray he bought at a Memphis dealership across the road from Graceland.
"That car is the only Corvette in the world that was in Elvis' funeral procession," said Strauss, who, prior to piloting the Lisa Marie, flew 100 combat support missions during a four-year tour of duty in Vietnam.
After Elvis' death, Strauss flew to California to pick up Elvis' ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie and the actor George Hamilton, a long-time friend of Elvis.
He flew them back to California after the funeral, and, in what would be his last flight on the Lisa Marie, returned the plane to Memphis.
But next week, Strauss will reunite with his former Lisa Marie crewmates, David and Manny, at an aviation function in Fort Lauderdale.
"Elvis' dad sold the plane in 1978 and it changed hands a couple of times," said Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan. "When Graceland opened up to the public in 1982, we worked with the owners to try and bring the plane home to Memphis."
In 1984, the Lisa Marie was stationed at Graceland. It has remained as one of the compound's most popular attractions ever since, Morgan said in a phone interview from Memphis.
It sits next to the Hound Dog Two, a small JetStar also used during some of Elvis' travels. Morgan said more than 60 percent of Graceland's 700,000 annual visitors tour the planes.
"When Elvis and his parents left Tupelo, Miss., and came to Memphis to find a better way of life, they piled everything they had into an old Plymouth," Morgan said. "He certainly went out better than he came in."
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Elvis also had a pilot by the name of Milo High. He was the pilot of the "HoundDog II" and died earlier this year.
High was pilot's pilot for 64 years
Flew for Elvis, FedEx, Uncle Sam, Bob Hope
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
As a Mississippi farm boy, Milo B. High looked up and discovered a passion for flight that defined his life, sending him both to war and to work flying entertainers like Elvis and elected officials across the nation and the world.
Mr. High of Bartlett died of congestive heart failure Thursday at Methodist North Hospital. He was 80.
"Flying was his passion. It was part of his DNA," said Paola High, his wife of 27 years. "When he was around an airplane he was in total control. The plane became part of him."
He was born in Pontotoc, Miss., the son of a farmer and one of seven children.
He was 16 years old when he made his first solo flight from an airfield near West Memphis.
His final flight was in August when he took off from Charles Baker Airport in Millington. He was piloting the 1942 Stearman trainer aircraft he restored.
In between, he logged more than 28,078 hours in the air. That means he spent more than three years of his life airborne. He flew for 10 different companies, piloting at least 74 different types of planes, from a crop duster to a DC4 to a Lear jet.
In World War II, he was a trainer for the U.S. Navy. During the Korean War, he was in the Air Force Reserves.
As a civilian, his passengers included Elvis Presley, President Gerald Ford, entertainers Bob Hope and John Denver, plus numerous U.S. senators. "When he flew Bob Hope, he (Hope) knelt in the cockpit door and told jokes from the time they took off to the time they landed," Paola High said. Hope later gave him a set of golf clubs.
Mr. High was also quick with quips and one-liners. "He made flying fun," she said.
He spent two years as Elvis' pilot, flying the Jet Star nicknamed Hound Dog. "Milo had nothing but high regard for Elvis. He was very protective of him," she added.
In a 2004 Commercial Appeal interview, Mr. High said: "Everybody recognizes me as a very smooth pilot." A good pilot, he explained, was one who flies so smoothly that when a passenger gets up and walks down the cabin aisle he won't get thrown against the wall or bumped around.
He retired in 1993 after more than 14 years as a corporate pilot for FedEx.
In 2004, Mr. High received the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award from the Federal Aviation Administration. The honor recognized him for more than 50 years of service and safe flying.
Along with his wife, Mr. High leaves two sons, Gregory Milo High of Mountain Home, Ark., and Milo B. High Jr. of Nashville; two daughters, Linda High Horner of Cordova and Gina V. High of Bartlett; a brother, Randolph High of Millington; a sister, Keller Hatley of Horseshoe Bend, Ark., a granddaughter and a great-grandson.
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New 1973 Fresno Airport footage |
Never before seen footage of Elvis in April 1973 . The camera captures the King on April 26, 1973 at Fresno Air Terminal as he departs the day after performing his two back-to-back sold-out shows at Fresno's Selland Arena. Other familiar faces include Vernon, Red West (with Superfly Hat on), Charlie Hodge, Dr. Nick, Joe Esposito and 'Hamburger James'.
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If you go to Graceland, you can tour Mr. Elvis Presley’s Convair 880-four-engine jet airplane.It originally had the tail number N8809E, and when Mr. Presley acquired the airplane, the tail number was change to N880EP on 5/2/1975. The engine was on Mr. Presley’s Convair jet
through out Mr. Presley’s ownership, as the paper trail shows. For sometime, the airplane sat on the tarmac at the Memphis Airport, until it was eventually sold for taxes. A holding company purchased it, removed all four engines, and leased the airplane to Graceland. The airplane was disassembled, moved in pieces to Graceland, and reassembled without engines.
One of those engines is on display at Graceland, two are in the Mojave Desert, and one was donated to the Memphis Aviation Tech School. The Memphis Tech School traded that GE GJ 805-3A jet engine to the Dalfort Aviation Tech School in Dallas for a Continental TSIO520 engine around 1995.
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EP'shoes in the plane
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