The Baja California Travel & Living Webzine

Beer Can Airplanes by Loreto Artisan

AeroCalifornia may have failed...
...but JorgeAviones is flying high

by Jim Bie

When you hear about manufacturing in Baja California you’re likely to think of maquiladora factories, those Mexican-US border complexes turning out technical devices for export. Would it surprise you to learn there is an airplane manufacturer operating in Loreto, 750 miles south of San Diego?

JorgeAviones is not a major employer in the area. It’s a one-man industry founded and operated by George “Jorge” Ghiselin. Jorge was in business in Ventura, California, and was fascinated with airplanes.

When he got his first plane he would frequently fly down from the nearby Santa Paula airport with his sons George and Tom for some Baja fishing. They first went to Mulege but soon found they preferred the then-remote fishing village of Loreto. About 15 years ago Jorge abandoned Ventura completely and made Loreto his permanent home.

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The plane was a gift to Byrd from Edsel Ford back in the days when his company was in the airplane business. It’s also a historic plane that has been re-created full-size and is displayed at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. The curator of the museum has expressed an interest in borrowing a collection of Jorge’s planes for a special exhibit at the museum.
Starting with the first plane, a replica of his own Beechcraft Debonair, nearly 400 models have now rolled off his workshop assembly bench. He can build a simple XP-3 in 10-12 hours, but has devoted as many as 40 hours for the more complicated designs.

A stickler for placing each can’s label printing and logos
in the most balanced and decorative manner, he uses as many as 15 cans for a single model. Jorge says, “It’s

Not content to loaf around idle, Jorge began building airplanes. In the ensuing years he has produced a whole fleet of fliers. OK -- they aren’t real planes that you can hop in to fly to Acapulco, but they still captivated the local community. If you stop in at Cafe Ole’ for a hearty breakfast of rancho huevos, you’ll notice at one end of the counter a model airplane about 12 inches long. It looks just like Jorge’s old Beechcraft Debonair, even though it’s made entirely from Tecate beer cans.

At Macaws restaurant, where you can get a delicious hamburguesa con queso, the back bar displays a Cessna Centurian. This one is made from Modelo Light beer cans.

These attractive flyers began popping up all over Loreto. I even saw a teetotaler version made from Pepsi-Cola cans. It’s proper designation is the Giorgi XP-3. The “XP” stands for Experimental-Promotional. Jorge routinely cranks these chubby, non-denominational beer can planes off the assembly line to give to friends.

When I first noticed these creations I decided I simply had to track down the maker. A few inquiries directed me to Jorge’s comfortable and colorful casa just a block from the malecon along the Sea of Cortez. He was putting the finishing touches on a sleek SR-71 Blackbird spy plane . . . made from Miller Draft cans, the only black ones he could find.

Jorge’s models are so authentic looking, in spite of their unconventional construction material, that FLYING Magazine -- the world’s largest aviation publication -- featured an article about his Tecate can model of the Ford AT-4 trimotor that explorer Richard Byrd flew over the South Pole in 1929.

This article earned Jim Bie a sexy new Baja Insider Polo shirt for his submission. Would you like the shirt off our back for submitting a story about Baja? Click here!

 just a great hobby. I don’t try to sell them. I just give them to friends. But if a local restaurant owner wants to trade for a bottle of tequila or a nice dinner for a special plane, how can I refuse?”

Like many enterprises that expand with mergers and acquisitions, JorgeAviones has now been acquired by Beer Can Specialties. This mini-conglomerate is again totally dependent upon the efforts of Jorge. He reports, “Many friends in Loreto have found the most comfortable means of transportation for scooting around town is a golf cart. A few who have personalized their vehicles wondered if I might memorialize their carts for them with a beer-can-sized replica.”

The new shape and configuration required a different set of dies. There are not as many broad differences between golf carts styles as there are among airplanes, but some refined production techniques were still needed. After half a dozen false starts, Jorge produced his first golf cart, a Tecate beer can version of Bill Agustino’s sporty Club Car. Bill is the proprietor of the popular, new Augie‘s Bar & Bait Shop on the malecon in Loreto.he cart is about eight inches long and six inches high. Less complex than an airplane, a golf cart requires only a six-pack of raw materials. Plus eight beer bottle caps for the wheels. Since then, Beer Can Specialties has rolled out about a dozen carts made from Tecate or the attractive Pacifica Blue and Pacifica Gold cans.

Jorge recently obtained a photo of the “Pope-mobile” that Benedict XVI uses for tooling around Vatican City. It’s a golf cart size electric vehicle manufactured by Global Electric Motorcars, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler. Jorge said, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to find any Birra Peroni, Giovanni Dolzino, or Castello di Undine beer cans in the Loreto cantinas. But then, the Pope is really German. Maybe Lowenbrau, Kaltenberg, or Becks labels would be even more appropriate. If I tackle this papal chariot, those Natuzzi Italian white leather seats will also be a challenge.”

(Please note: Jorge doesn’t drink all that beer himself. He has friends who help gather the raw materials he needs for his construction projects.)

Additional Information

Map of Loreto
Driving Baja
Loreto Fest and the HPYC