Meet aviation’s extreme collectors

Story highlights

Cliff Muskiet loves stewardess uniforms. He's collected over 1,000 over the years.

Vicky and Steve Everson bonded over their love of flight. The couple married in a retired Concorde.

The Eversons grew their collection into a museum space with flight simulator.

CNN  — 

For many travelers, jetsetting lost its glamorous allure decades ago.

Still, there are a handful of holdouts who still view flying through the lens of seductive aviation epics like “Catch Me If You Can”.

For the likes of Cliff Muskiet and Vicky and Steve Everson, the charm of aviation’s golden era can be resurrected through their plane-themed collections.

Muskiet, for instance, has amassed over 1,000 cabin crew uniforms, which he keeps stored at his home. His collection spans seven continents and as many decades.

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“At the moment, I want to have them with me, but eventually I would like to make a book – maybe a coffee table book. To do that, though, I need a big bag of money,” he says.

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The Eversons, who wed inside a Concorde four years ago, make Muskiet’s collection look tame. The couple, who met online and soon bonded over their shared love of plane paraphernalia, spent £40,000 ($67,000) converting their home in Lancashire, UK into a Boeing 737 airplane, complete with a flight simulator.

“The corridor used to be full of aircraft parts. We had to cut a door for the flight deck in the bathroom,” admits Steve.

The collection grew so big that the couple eventually had to outsource it to an office space down the street. They have since started charging fellow flight fanatics for the chance to try out the simulator (they dub it the Flight Deck Experience).

“We wanted people to feel like they were boarding a real aircraft. It adds to the whole experience,” says Steve.