There’s a house going up for sale in Colorado Springs — five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths and half a Boeing 727.
Why it matters: The unusual property tells the story of Rick Broome, a local aviation artist whose paintings became a generations-long tradition at the U.S. Air Force Academy — and whose work documented the evolution of American air power for nearly half a century.
Catch up quick: The home includes a Boeing 727 cockpit and first-class cabin section integrated into a 7,000-square-foot addition that Broome built around 2005.
- The artist told 9News he bought the plane from a Hollywood backlot.
- From the studio, Broome painted aviation scenes for presidents, military leaders and thousands of Air Force Academy graduates.
- Beginning in 1979, graduating cadets commissioned him to create official class paintings that families and alumni could purchase as prints — an arrangement that, with some interruptions, lasted through 2022.
Flashback: Broome dabbled with art early in life, but he originally dreamed of becoming a commercial airline pilot. He was accepted into a pilot program in California, but before he could start training, the 1971 San Fernando earthquake motivated him to move to the more geologically stable Colorado Springs. He got a job as a Chevy salesman and sold his paintings “for flight time,” according to his son, James Broome.
- Through the dealership, Broome met and befriended many Air Force cadets and began selling his art to them.
- Those relationships eventually led academy graduates to commission a painting for the class of 1979 — launching the tradition.
By the 1980s, Broome’s paintings — known for their high level of detail —had become a recognizable part of academy culture, with scenes featuring the Front Range, the academy campus and the latest military aircraft soaring overhead…