Finding Dr. No and Capt. Nemo…

Business and private jets are productivity-enhancing tools that allow any owner or operator to live and function at a different level. While this is true for global companies such as Wal-Mart, Google and Coca Cola it’s also the case with what I think of as the Dr No’s and Capt Nemo’s of the world.

His Majesty the Sultan of Johor’s Istana Bukit Serene palace, one of his 32 palaces in Malaysia.

There’s something compelling about arch villains, mad scientists and others who live out their passions—the Dr. No and Capt. Nemo personalities—who, at least in fiction, are often thought to inhabit extinct volcanoes or well-furnished undersea hideouts. Going back even further in time we have Dr Frankenstein types who lived well away from the mainstream and practices such uncommon skills as reanimating flesh and creating their own beings.

I’ve always wanted to meet these personalities who manage to create and inhabit their own unconventional worlds. Dr No and Capt Nemo lifestyles are much more than simply amassed wealth. They hinge more on a drive to operate in the world differently than what can be considered the normal and traditional pace of day-to-day life. These individuals, however, are usually well off the radar and not easy to find or encounter. By nature they’re private entities who tend to live in their own created environments and move around the world well out of public view.

One way to find these unique individuals is to look behind the curtain into the world of private jets. There seems to be a correlation between those with the means and personal idiosyncrasies to conjure up their own worlds and the possession of private jets. To finance a globally-capable private jet an individual must have done something out of the ordinary and have the imagination/ambition to move toward somewhat extreme lifestyles.

Interior of Faberge’s 1970s Gulfstream II corporate jet.

Back in the earlier days of large-cabin private jets there was Faberge’s 66,000 pound max takeoff weight Gulfstream II with its magic-carpet 500 mph abilities and startling interior décor. The 39 foot long cabin had been transformed to resemble a cave, outfitted with a built-in piano and a pressure-fed walk-up bar complete with a white-jacketed Spanish bartender. This was somewhat equivalent, from the perspective of unique airborne interior design, to Playboy’s early 70s black bunny McDonnell Douglas DC9 jet with its onboard circular bed and projection room.

In the mid 80s I had the chance to visit and fly with Occidental Petroleum boss Armand Hammer aboard his private Boeing 727-100. This particular example of airborne real estate included a well-appointed library, bedroom, display cases of Romanoff-era art treasures, a speech-writers station and a Telex machine clattering away with incoming message from the world over. With this turbine-powered business tool Hammer successfully managed a collection of highly-profitable global business interests.

A few years later I had the opportunity to visit and write Professional Pilot magazine features on His Majesty the Sultan of Johor at his Istana Bukit Serene base of operations in southern Malaysia. His Majesty kept a camouflaged-painted amphibious land/sea plane in a hangar at the Johor Bahru Royal Polo Field, a Gulfstream III business jet—featuring green Malachite stone interior facings and a spacious onboard shower—at a nearby airport and two turbine-powered helicopters at his primary palace. His Majesty, meanwhile, stocked ferocious crocodiles in the Royal Crocodile Lake and kept a healthy black Panther behind bars close to his residence. On our drive from the palace out to the Royal Polo Field, for a quick flight in the Lake Renegade amphibian, the Sultan’s motorcade was bracketed with dedicated front and back Rolls Royce police cars, complete with sirens, flashing roof lights, Royal crests on the doors and motorcycle police outriders. “It’s usually easier and less cumbersome to take a helicopter than this motorcade,” said His Majesty. “But, sometimes the rotor blade downwash tends to blow apart local dwellings.”

Jumbolair

Arthur Jones takes time out to feed elephants at his Jumblair jetport.

John Travolta lives here now, with his private Boeing 707, but this land was formerly inhabited by absolutely one-of-a-kind Nautilus Industries Founder Arthur Jones. Jones kept two privately-configured Boeing 707s at his 7000 foot central Florida landing strip. To reach his house from the runway one passed through a 75 foot long tunnel within which lived a 340-pound African gorilla with 13 inch circumference wrists. It was kept entertained by a continuous loop video of evangelical preaching. The gorilla, Mickey was his name, seemed to appreciate the biblical sounds as pleasant background noise. At the other side of the tunnel was a elegant country estate complete with horses and long stretches of white fencing. But, like the Lexington KY residence/command post of James Bond villain and 4-engine Lockheed JetStar private jet equipped Auric Goldfinger, Jones’ place was not what it seemed on the surface.

Stepping into the living room I could not help noticing stacks of elephant tusks piled against one wall and a blown up photo over the fireplace of a giraffe raising its head from a lake with a crocodile clamped over its head. Heading outside with Arthur Jones for a tour of the property only reconfirmed that this was not your average central Florida hobby ranch. Jumbolair’s private domestic menagerie included an assortment of 90 elephants, some 1500 alligators and crocodiles purchased from bankrupt croc farms around the world, lots and lots of poisonous snakes and a single rhinoceros. All of this had a purpose, said Jones an ardent student of natural selection. “I’ve learned valuable lessons from crocodiles over the years and

When off the Wheel of Fortune TV set Vanna White has a pair of Learjet 35s ready to fly her anywhere.

this has helped me in business and negotiations,” he said. “The most effective way to control people and to advance in your chosen field is by appealing to either terror or greed. Of the two terror is the most effective.” I can’t say what Jones, a former resident of Uganda when General Idi Amin was in charge, told me after this—or what his preferred vision of the world was—because he carefully detailed what would happen if visitors talked too much. “I have an associate who specializes in negative orthopedic work,” explained Jones over lunch. “His day job is driving a limo in Orlando but he’ll come over to see you if you talk about what I’m going to tell you.” (something along the lines of blowing up major world centers with strategic nuclear events, flying his jets down to the Galapagos Islands, taking over the local population and living far away from the worst of the nuclear fallout)

My weekend at Jumbolair with Arthur Jones and the hissing crocs was an eye opening experience. I knew there must be more of these Dr No and Capt Nemo lifestyle examples out there and that it should be possible to find at least some of them. The best way to try to encounter such off-the-grid creative personalities, it seemed to me, was to follow the trail of private jets.

Grant McLaren discusses with Larry Flynt the evil ways to the preachers who so often criticize the publisher.

Penthouse Publisher Larry Flynt, with his black Gulfstream II, certainly fits the mega-lifestyle Dr No image and I had the pleasure of interviewing him at his Beverly Hills CA corporate command post. Another example of a private jet owner who managed to fashion his own world is LA-based Pastor Frederick Price. Price built an impressive and profitable business in the field of evangelical religion, with the help of a Gulfstream II private jet named “Air Faith One” complete with an elaborate interior and every exposed piece of metal gold plated. “Because we’re a business and we’re here in the Earth realm, we must do things is a business like way—with the same tools everyone else uses,” says Price. “In the case of this particular jet we got stuck in the Cadillac showroom and we didn’t get any further.”

Interviewing private jet owners is usually a very controlled process carefully monitored by assorted public relations people. But, in some cases, I would run across owners who seemed completely open and who I could ask almost anything. This is where writing private jet profiles can become interesting . . .

Disclaimer:

While not all of the following articles relate to or involve Dr No and Capt Nemo like personalities private jets have provided important productivity tools and opened up new worlds of possibilities for each.

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