Elvis Presley’s Private Jets: A $250,000 Delta Airliner, a JetStar, and the “Elvis Jet” He Never Flew

In April 1975, Elvis Presley paid $250,000 for a retired Delta Air Lines jetliner. Then he spent more on the interior than on the airplane. The Elvis Presley private jet that came out of that refit, the Convair 880 he named Lisa Marie, still sits at Graceland today.

It was not his only jet. A Lockheed JetStar called Hound Dog II carried his manager and staff from city to city on tour. A second JetStar, sold at auction as “Elvis’s jet,” was bought by his father and never flown by Elvis at all.

This guide covers all three airframes, checked against FAA records, what the Lisa Marie could do, the flights people still talk about, and how the planes nearly left Graceland in 2015.

Elvis Presley’s Complete Private Jet Fleet

Three jets carry Elvis’s name, but only two of them flew him. We matched each one to its FAA file in the November 6, 2026 release of the register, where all three registrations now sit in the cancelled records.

Convair 880 "Lisa Marie"N880EP · serial 38 · ex-Delta N8809E

Sold 1978 · now at Graceland

AcquiredApril 17, 1975

Purchase price$250,000

RefitOver $800,000 (Graceland figure)

Seats after refit28

Range (Convair 880-22)2,472 NM

Engines4x General Electric CJ-805-3

Lockheed JetStar "Hound Dog II"N777EP · serial 5004 · Lockheed 1329

On display · Graceland

AcquiredSeptember 2, 1975

Purchase price$899,702.60

First flight for ElvisOctober 8, 1975

PassengersUp to 10

RangeAbout 2,500 miles

Engines4x Pratt & Whitney JT12A-8

Lockheed JetStar (the Roswell jet)N20TC, later N440RM · serial 5016 · bought by Vernon Presley

Sold after 1977

AcquiredDecember 1976

Purchase price$840,000

Bought byVernon Presley, as an investment

Flights with ElvisNone reported

2017 auction$430,000

2023 sale$234,000, to YouTuber Jimmy Webb

The Origin Story: From Delta Airliner to Flying Graceland

Elvis bought both of his working jets inside six months in 1975. The record below runs from the airliner’s Delta years to the day its last registration was cancelled.

Inside the Lisa Marie: Elvis Presley’s Convair 880

The Convair 880 was built as a 110-seat airliner, and only 65 were made between 1959 and 1962. Elvis cut his down to 28 seats and turned the rest into a home.

Graceland lists a living room, a conference room, a sitting room and a private bedroom. The fittings were gold-plated seat belts, suede chairs, leather-covered tables and gold-flecked sinks.

The fan site Elvis Australia adds a queen-size bed, a teak conference room, a videotape system feeding four TVs and a stereo with 52 speakers. Simple Flying describes a sky-to-ground phone and the “TCB” logo on the tail, short for Taking Care of Business.

That $404,000 is the figure Elvis Australia gives for running the jet in 1976, its only full year in service. The crew stayed the same throughout: Captain Elwood David, co-pilot Ron Strauss and flight engineer Jim Manny.

The refit took about seven months. Sources disagree on what it cost: Graceland says Elvis spent more than $800,000 remodeling the jet, while Elvis Australia puts the total cost after refurbishing at over $600,000.

Hound Dog II: The JetStar That Flew the Tour

Elvis bought the Lockheed JetStar while he waited for the Convair, according to Elvis Australia. It cost $899,702.60, more than three times what he paid for the airliner.

The JetStar is a four-engine business jet that seats up to 10 passengers and typically flies about 2,500 miles (4,000 km). Graceland says it mainly carried his manager and staff between cities on concert tours, in a cabin Elvis decorated in yellow and green.

Hound Dog II now sits beside the Lisa Marie at Graceland, and visitors can board both. Its FAA file lists it as a Lockheed 1329, serial 5004, last registered to Graceland Air LLC.

The Roswell JetStar: Sold as Elvis’s Jet

The third airframe has had the most attention lately. Business Jet Traveler reports that Vernon Presley bought it in December 1976 for $840,000 and leased it out, so it was “Elvis’s in name only.”

After Elvis’s death it passed through several owners, then sat at Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico, losing its avionics and engines. It sold at auction for $430,000 in 2017.

In 2023, YouTuber Jimmy Webb of the Jimmy’s World channel bought it for $234,000, buyer’s premium included. His plan, as Business Jet Traveler reported it, was to mount the fuselage on an RV chassis and sell the wings and tail as collectibles.

The FAA file confirms the paper trail: Lockheed JetStar serial 5016, registered N440RM, cancelled in April 2013. The N440RM mark has since been reissued to an unrelated helicopter.

Why the Planes Nearly Left Graceland

For three decades the jets did not belong to Graceland. They were owned by OKC Partnership, which displayed them there in return for a share of ticket sales, the Associated Press reported in 2014.

That July, Elvis Presley Enterprises was planning a 450-room hotel and had invoked its right to end the deal. CEO Jack Soden’s letter asked for “the removal of the airplanes and the restoration of the site on or shortly after April 26, 2015.”

The owner won city council approval to move the planes just down the street, and the Convair was offered for sale in January 2015. The jets stayed, and Graceland said they would “permanently remain” at the attraction.

Wikipedia says Elvis Presley Enterprises bought the Lisa Marie back. The FAA records fit that: a company at Graceland’s address registered N880EP in September 2015 and N777EP in March 2019. The Lisa Marie got a fresh coat of paint in 2018, according to Simple Flying.

Elvis Presley’s Most Famous Private Jet Moments

The Fool’s Gold Loaf Run to Denver

The best-known Elvis flight is about a sandwich. The Colorado Music Experience recounts that he flew from Memphis to Denver for the Fool’s Gold Loaf, a $37.95 loaf of bread with peanut butter, jelly and bacon from the Colorado Mine Company in Glendale.

Popular retellings put the trip on the Lisa Marie in 1976 and count 22 loaves delivered to the plane. We could not trace those details to a first-hand account, so treat them as legend rather than record.

Las Vegas, Thanksgiving 1975

The Lisa Marie’s first real trip came on November 27, 1975, when Ron Strauss flew Elvis to Las Vegas. Simple Flying ties it to a roughly two-week engagement there.

Christmas Day in the Air

On December 25, 1975, Elvis took everyone up in the new plane, a flight both Elvis Australia and Simple Flying single out.

The Last Flight Home

After Elvis died in August 1977, Captain Elwood David flew the Lisa Marie to California to bring Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley back. Elvis Australia says the return to Memphis was the captain’s last flight in it.

How Elvis Compares With Other Celebrity Airliner Owners

Elvis was not the only star to fly a converted airliner, but he did it early. Playboy Enterprises owned a DC-9, the Big Bunny, from 1970 to 1976.

The closest modern parallel is John Travolta’s Boeing 707, N707JT, the last of 13 aircraft built in its configuration for Qantas. Travolta donated it in 2017, and it reached the HARS Aviation Museum in Australia by sea in May 2026.

Both stories end the same way: a celebrity airliner is too old and too costly to fly, so it becomes a museum piece. Elvis’s jets got there first, and they still sit at his own home.