John Travolta is a certified private pilot who owns five aircraft, so it’s only fitting that the 60-year-old actor’s Florida home has two runways that lead directly to his front door.
“We designed the house for the jets and to have at our access the world at a moment’s notice, and we succeeded at that,” a bearded Travolta said during an interview Thursday on Australia’s “Today.” “For the last 11 years, we’ve been able to globe-trot for Qantas and movies … I’ve been really able to operate out of this house for business and personal reasons.
Travolta has been a Qantas “ambassador-at-large” since 2002 and keeps his personal Qantas Boeing 707 in the yard of his Florida home, just a 10-minute flight from Orlando.
Travolta’s vintage Thunderbird is in the front drive of the residence, which was designed by architect Dana Smith. Construction of the house lasted two years, but “the plan took, on and off, about six years,” Travolta says. “We moved into the guest quarters for a while to oversee it.”
A games table in the great room.
“It was always John’s dream to have planes in his front yard—to practically be able to pull up to the house—so that when you wanted to go to dinner, all you’d have to do was step out the door, get on the plane and whisk off,” Kelly Preston says of her aviation-mad husband John Travolta.
The great room.
Curved window walls define the great room, which looks onto the tarmac. “Michael Eisner was our first dinner guest,” says Travolta, a seasoned pilot and owner of two jets. “He looked at our planes and said, “ ‘My God, I get it. Within an hour we can be on our way to Paris.’ ” Above the mantelpiece is a 1967 work by Alexander Calder.
A jet parked in a plane pavilion.
“You can be the ultimate eccentric, like I am, and bring in a 707,” he says. “But you can also bring in any corporate jet or airliner.” A Gulfstream II jet is parked in one of two plane pavilions. Although the property came equipped with a 7,500-foot runway, Travolta extended the taxiway to reach the house.
And a bed-and-breakfast where pilots and prospective homeowners can stay overnight:
Travolta’s property, located in the Jumbolair Aviation Estates in Ocala, Florida, is situated on Greystone Airport. The actor was reportedly the first resident of the 550-acre community that caters to people who want fly-in, fly-out access.
The aviation community allows homeowners to land their planes, including Travolta’s Boeing 707 airliner, and taxi up to their homes.
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