Actor's home & runway
Following a lifelong love of aviation, 70's TV phenom actor John Travolta now lives in Jumbolair, just north of Ocala, Florida. Shown are two of Travolta's jets - a Gulfstream and a Boeing 707B - there aren't very many non-commercial airstrips where planes of that size can take off and land. About a decade ago, Travolta had a home in a fly-in community near Daytona, but was sued by neighbours who claimed his jet airplanes were too big and noisy for their facility.
The very layout of his new house is testament to Travolta's love of flying. It's located immediately off the main airstrip, and is designed so his jets can taxi right up to two outbuildings connected to the main structure, which is shaped like a squat air-control tower. Travolta literally can walk out his door, under a canopied walkway and into the cockpit, open the long mechanized gate and be airborne in a matter of minutes.
“We know that Travolta's an accomplished pilot. A lot of people fly for the pleasure of it, and he's one of them,” said John Clabes, an FAA spokesman. “If you have this many ratings on these types of high-performance aircraft, you're obviously a good pilot.”
In layman's terms, Travolta has enough experience flying large multi-engine jets that he could easily switch to piloting commercial airliners for a living - but why bother when you can make a hobby of it? 49-year old Travolta flies daily from Ocala to Tampa to shoot “The Punisher,” an action movie based on the comic book, set to be released next summer... Tough life, but someone has to do it, eh?
john Travolta Bio
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined in the early 1980s and continued to deteriorate for the rest of the decade. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films, including Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.Travolta, the youngest of six children,[1] was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995),[2] was a semi-professional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company.[3] His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978),[2] was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher.[4] His siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta, have all acted.[4] His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American;[5][6] he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture.[7][8] He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975.
Travolta married actress Kelly Preston in 1991. The couple had a son, Jett (1992–2009).[30] Their daughter, Ella Bleu, was born in 2000. On May 18, 2010, Travolta and Preston announced that she was pregnant with the couple's third child,[31] later confirmed to be a boy.[32] Their son, Benjamin, was born on November 23, 2010 in Florida.[33]
Travolta and Preston have regularly attended marriage counseling; Travolta has stated that therapy has helped the marriage.[34]
Travolta is a certified private pilot and owns five aircraft, including an ex-Qantas Boeing 707–138 airliner. The plane bears the name Jett Clipper Ella in honor of his children.[35] Pan American World Airways was a large operator of the Boeing 707 and used Clipper in its names. The 707 aircraft bears the marks of Qantas, as Travolta acts as an official goodwill ambassador for the airline wherever he flies. His $4.9 million estate in the Jumbolair subdivision in Ocala, Florida, is situated on Greystone Airport with its own runway and taxiway right to his front door.[36]
On November 24, 1992, Travolta was piloting his Gulfstream N728T at night on top of a solid undercast when he experienced a total electrical system failure while flying under instrument flight rules into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. During the emergency landing he almost had a mid-air collision with a USAir Boeing 727, attributed to a risky decision by an air traffic controller.[37]
On September 13, 2010, during the first episode of the final season of her talk show, Oprah Winfrey announced that she would be taking her entire studio audience on an 8-day expenses-paid trip to Australia, with Travolta serving as pilot for the trip. He had helped Winfrey plan the trip for over a year.[38]
Travolta has been a practitioner of Scientology since 1975 when he was given the book Dianetics while filming the movie The Devil's Rain in Durango, Mexico.After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, joining other celebrities in helping with the relief efforts, Travolta flew his 707 full of supplies, doctors, and Scientologist Volunteer Ministers into the disaster area.