A father has buried a Boeing 737 he bought on Facebook for just £4,000 (~$5,364) in his garden – and plans to turn it into an underground war bunker and party venue.
Madcap engineer Dave Billings, 45, lowered the fuselage of the three-tonne Boeing 737-500 Bmibaby into a 14ft-deep hole at his home in Derbyshire, where it will become part of an incredible underground hideout.
The scrapped plane will be connected to a massive nuclear bunker that Dave spent years building under his property in Hilton, inspired by the classic prisoner of war film The Great Escape.
This ambitious project, which has already cost at least £50,000 (~$67,053), includes a maze of tunnels, hidden rooms and secret entrances – and Dave estimates it could even keep his family off the grid for months if World War III broke out.
Dramatic footage shows the plane’s giant shell slowly winched into the ground by a team of helpers last month.
Dave now plans to install a hidden elevator shaft inside a traditional red telephone box, which will transport visitors up to the buried plane.
The engineer said his plane-obsessed eight-year-old son Oliver inspired the purchase – although his wife Beth needed a little more convincing.
He said: “Beth wondered why I was spending money on an old plane and said it was junk, but she’s coming back now.
“It’s primarily a fun thing to have and a place where we can party and relax, but it could be turned into a fallout shelter.
“The whole thing will be buried under concrete and dirt, so the top will be about two and a half feet underground.
“There will be electricity and water, but we are also installing solar panels on top and there will be a borehole for water supply.
“The airplane toilets will be converted into usable toilets connected to our septic tank.
“The structure will also have its own ventilation system.
“Depending on how much food we have there, we could stay off-grid for a long time if necessary.”
Dave insists that the bunker is more about fun than survival, despite its ability to serve as shelter in the event of a major conflict.
He said: “I’m still building this for fun at the moment.
“If I were a trainer, I would stop everything else to continue.
“I do these things because they’re cool, I enjoy it. But this one is a cool thing that has a purpose; it can be considered functional.
“If things get out of hand and it becomes necessary I can speed up the job, but I don’t think anyone will bomb the Derbyshire Dales.”
Dave bought the dismantled fuselage with friends in December 2025 and transported it home for £4,000.
He estimates it will cost an additional £8,000 (~$10,730) in concrete, £3,000 (~$4,024) in reinforcing mesh, and £2,000 (~$2,682) in insulation before the plane is fully buried and secured underground.
That’s not counting the food, drinks and beer he plans to store inside.
In addition to the barrels for the bar, Dave hopes to stock enough supplies to last between three and six months.
He documented this incredible project on his YouTube channel, Tornado Dave, and says he plans to finish it by next February.
Dave added: “Beth said it had to be finished before our tenth wedding anniversary, so I have a very firm deadline to meet.”
It also plans to apply for retrospective planning permission for the project.
Gn world
