Well this is pretty awesome. I realize the thought of an airplane meal probably doesn’t sound very appealing to the average person, but to many of us aviation geeks it sounds like something we’d go out of our way to experience.
There are a few restaurants located inside airplanes (Travis wrote about one last year in Colorado Springs), though it looks like the latest one opened this year in China, and this is the first time I’ve heard about it.
Per Shanghaiist, a new restaurant has opened inside a 737 in Wuhan, China. The plane was taken over from now bankrupt Indonesian airline Batavia Air, though it has been renamed Lily Airways. The plane was apparently bought at a cost of 35 million Yuan, or about 5.2 million USD. Since the plane was at Jakarta Airport, they had to take it apart, send it on a ship, and then rebuild it again in China.
The inspiration for the plane came from the 747 hotel & restaurant at Stockholm Airport, which I’ve been wanting to visit for a while.
As you’d expect, the servers are dressed as flight attendants, and oddly they even have the same strict hiring standards as airlines, including the height requirement. The restaurant can apparently seat about 70 diners at a time.
Here’s a video about the new restaurant (though this is the first I’ve head of a “Boeing 373”):
Well, I’ve never been to Wuhan before, though perhaps this is a good reason to visit.
Would you dine at an airplane restaurant?
Must be a dream come true for locals. You can smoke at will and crack open door to let fresh air in. Two most important things.
There was one too just outside of Beirut in the late 90s as well.
This is the one, JMcC is talking about!
www.restaurant-silbervogel.de
Cheers from Hannover as well! :o)
Nice! The food doesn't look very inspiring, though.
Lucky could fly on China southern business or first class on the 787 from SFO to WUH. He could see how China southern is doing now.
There used to be an airplane café ("Flugzeugcafé Silbervogel" opened in '71) close to where I grew up in Germany, a couple years ago the plane was moved to Hanover, Germany and is still being operated as a Greek restaurant.
And maybe you could fky a CZ 787 from SFO to WUH
Looks like fun. The Stockholm one is worth a visit.
@Lucky - awesome! Check it out and let us know if it's worth it. I hope it's better than the toilet-themed restaurant my colleagues and I visited earlier this year in Taipei. There's a pic at our office in Derby with all of us sporting our RR shirts and sitting (on toilet seats) around the table in front of what looked like..ehh..a steamy brown...well..you get it.
Love it! Wish I had the money to visit