Around this time a year ago, Bristol entrepreneur Johnny Palmer took on his biggest challenge yet. The Warleigh Weir owner came up with the madcap notion to drive a Boeing 727 down the M5 motorway - and pulled it off.
People across our region turned out in droves to watch the spectacle unfold. It was quite the event and all so Mr Palmer could have an authentic office for his Brislington business, Pytch.
The whole drama was "absolute chaos", but a worthwhile publicity stunt that left the name "Johnny Palmer" on everyone's lips that day. For a cool £100,000, he now has one of the world's most unique boardrooms, reports Gloucestershire Live.
READ MORE: Watch as huge plane travels down the M5 into Bristol
The tech entrepreneur discovered the 1970s private jet in an "aircraft graveyard" in the Cotswolds and decided to "upcycle" it into an office. The plane was built in 1968 and used by Japan Airlines before it went into private ownership in the mid-1970s.
Brandnew, it would have cost £40m but (as it was lacking wings and an engine) Johnny got a deal at £100,000. After months of planning, on Saturday, February 27 the wingless and tailless fuselage was strapped to a lorry and driven down the M4, M5 and M32 from Kemble.
Johnny, then 38, said: "It was absolute chaos, the whole thing! The trailer went through a sinkhole in the tarmac and we got stuck at some of the corners and junctions.
"There were some hairy moments. Such as when the police refused for us to use the planned route, when it scraped under a motorway bridge and when emergency services had to get past us."
A TV show, live-streamed on YouTube, followed the jet's progress from start to finish. Meanwhile, hordes of people who wanted to see it in person turned out along the route.
The whole plan nearly derailed just 300 yards from its final destination when a parked van blocked the route. Yet even that was no challenge for Mr Palmer, who had it craned out of the way.
Eventually, around seven hours after it left Kemble, the Boeing 727 was installed at its final resting place in Palmer's business park. The following day, it was lifted into position by "two giant cranes" ready for the nose cone to be re-attached.
Johnny said: "To see it being a real thing in the real world after working on it on CAD for months, it just made me grin from ear to ear. When I finally saw it in place I was blown away - it is utterly enormous, especially as we have rested it on a structure which means the aircraft is over seven metres high."
The jet would be restored to its 1970s splendour without a trace of modern technology, the entrepreneur explained. During the lockdown, Pytch's existing offices were used for broadcasting and green screen filming, so they needed a vibrant new place to work.
