Except for the 767, they're not ostentatious

September 13, 2007

2 Min Read
Google Guys Take Moffet

5:30 PM -- From USA Today: Google pays $1.3M to fly jet from NASA airport.

This one is juicy on so many levels. The bottom line is that Google guys Larry and Sergey are paying the government $1.3 million a year to fly their personalized Boeing 767 plane in and out of Moffet Field, the Siliconned Valley airport owned by NASA and normally off limits to private air traffic.

Just what I wanted, my own private jet... and my own private government-maintained airport.

There are some zingers in the story: "... the space agency made an exception for Page and Brin in exchange for the right to carry scientists and their equipment on planes used by the two billionaires."

Yes, the valuable concession of being able to airmail their telescopes. Or maybe the envious scientists just want to fly with the Google guys and figure out how to get plush jobs.

Second funny line (italics mine): "The men generally aren't ostentatious, but they indulged themselves by buying a Boeing 767-200 — an airplane that typically carries 180 passengers and is three times larger than most executive jets."

Hah! OXYMORON ALERT. Let's get this straight: Except for the 180-passenger Boeing jet that they are allowed to exclusively land at an off-limits NASA airport, they're not ostentatious. That must be in the context of the new non-ostentatiousness of Silicon Valley. What -- so they should earn points because they don't also own gigantolithic yachts?

Sheesh.

By the way, this is the same plane that was the subject of lawsuits between the Google guys and their designer, who allegedly would not shut about about the plane and couldn't even get the sofas or the size of their beds right.

— R. Scott Raynovich, Director of Ostentation, Light Reading

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like