The delusional story of Cosmic Muffin, the plane converted into a ship: from an aeronautical jewel to a naval rarity

If there were a catalog of improbable stories, of crazy chronicles with a priori beginnings and endings as difficult to marry as ice and fire, The Cosmic Muffin It would well deserve to be among the main chapters. Details aside, its cover letter is exceptional: it was manufactured in the 1930s as an elite plane in the Boeing hangars and ended up converted, decades later and a few twists of fate, into a yacht with hipster dessert name.

If that description wasn’t catchy enough, it comes with taking a look at their photos to understand why the plane-yacht —or yacht-plane, the order does not alter the result— tends to slip into the ship lists rarest in the world.

More bizarre than its appearance, however, is its story. The chronicle of the renowned Cosmic Muffin started far from the waters and docks. Its origin is in the table of the engineers of Boeingwhich in the 1930s decided to manufacture a civilian version of the B-17 aircrafta model with the most modern features of its time, pressurized cabin and capable of reaching heights of 20,000 feet —6,100 meters— and achieve a cruising speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

The result was the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, an emblematic four-engine aircraft of which —explains the Florida Air Museum— only four units were manufactured.

Marked by history… and meteorology

The aircraft was unique enough to catch the attention of howard hughes, American billionaire, film producer, philanthropist and pilot fond of chasing new records. Being told by Boeing that he would have to wait because he had committed to supplying the airlines PAA and TWA he cared very little. Eager for his Stratoliner, Hughs pulled checkbook and it was done with a generous – and above all influential – packages of shares in TWA. after paying $315,000 he ended up acquiring his own Stratoliner aircraft.

In mind, the tycoon had a philanthropic tour around the world, an expedition for which Boeing’s new civil model, capable of flying at 20,000 feet, seemed an ideal candidate. It could not be. He may have been stubborn and had an enviable checking account, but Hughes had one obstacle that Hughs could hardly deal with: the Second World War.

The Stratoliner ended up in a hangar at the Union Air Terminal until in 1949 Hughes decided to take out his checkbook again to reform it. And big. he dedicated $400,000 to turn what was already a benchmark in aeronautical technology into a whole design icon of interiors: he resorted to the popular Raymond Lowey and the advice of rita hayworth and he gave it such a sophisticated air that for a time—under the name of Shamrock and owned by the millionaire Glenn McCarthy— was used to transport Hollywood celebrities.

Boeing Stratoliner 307 (F-BELY) in 1967. Photo taken from Tormentor4555 (Flickr)

That was perhaps the most sophisticated chapter of the plane, but not the last.

In its history, an enemy difficult to combat would come across again: the weather. In 1964, already in the hands of a company based in Florida, the ancient Stratoliner suffered the blow of a hurricane that ruined its wings and tail. The damage was such that the company decided it was not worth repairing. That could have been his end if it hadn’t been for Kenneth Londonwho decided to take advantage of the structure and convert what was left of that plane that had dazzled Hughs into something different: one yeit. it took him five years achieve it.

New life, new name, new use.

The result was Londonairea plane-boat with two V-8 engines and a ship’s hulk that could be seen plowing through the canals of South Florida.

A few years later, in ’81, it was taken over by Dave Drimmer and renamed The Cosmic Muffin, an option that would surely have sounded like science fiction to even the most imaginative Boeing engineers who had designed its airframe decades before. . In any case, the name has its reason: it is taken from the novel ‘Where’s Joe Merchant?’written by Jimmy Buffett.

Nor was that the last stop of the boat-plane. According to Drimmer lived aboard the Cosmic Muffins until in 2018 he decided to donate it. Another version, of which echoes autoevolution, points out that during its last years, until 2016, it operated as a commercial vessel. It doesn’t matter. In both cases the end is the same: the ship ends up in the Florida Air Museumwhich in 2018 claimed to have partnered with experts from the University of South Florida (USF) to study its structure and plan a “careful restoration”.

A new chapter in the most unlikely of aeronautical histories…

… And naval.

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