"Eat your heart out Larry and Sergey." — Reporter Mary Anne Ostrom, describing the Airbus A380 which landed earlier today at San Francisco International Airport. The humongous jet can carry as many as 800 people — 16 times the passenger capacity of the Google founders' party plane. [San Jose Mercury News]
How many planes does one man need? Or, more precisely, three men? Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin already own, with CEO Eric Schmidt, an extensively remodeled 767, pictured here in New Zealand. Schmidt, by himself, owns at least one Gulfstream V (some reports say he has two). But we now hear that the Google trio are buying a 757. While smaller than the widebody 767, the 757 is still a commercial airliner, considerably bigger than most private jets. So why would Page, Brin, and Schmidt need four planes between them?
This picture is the closest you will ever get to the controls of the Google founders' Party Plane. Snapped three years ago, it shows the cockpit of the then-Qantas-owned 767 waiting on the runway in Australia before a flight. While Sergey Brin and Larry Page redecorated the rest of the plane we suspect the cockpit remains unaltered, save for cosmetic decorations. Perhaps they changed the color scheme to a white background with primary colors? Anyway, we hope all those buttons and screens don't distract the pilots too much. After all, someone needs to keep the ride smooth enough for Larry to make out with his girlfriend.
Who told you first that the Google founders' party plane, pictured here in New Zealand, was parked at NASA's Moffett Field? Turns out they've found a permanent home there for the low, low price of $1.3 million dollars and the right for NASA to use the plane for "science missions." The winners in this? Google founders and owners of the plane Larry Page and Sergey Brin, obviously, who now have a short seven-minute jaunt before taking off for Greenland or other exotic locations. Losers? Every other private-plane owning tech mogul out there who has to muddle through traffic on 101 and security lines at SFO or SJC. Oh, and the people of Mountain View and other surrounding areas, who didn't realize they were buying their multi-million dollar bungalow underneath a flightpath. Complains one community activist: "If they are doing it just because they are rich and popular, it is not O.K."
We've got the answer on what Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are doing in Seville, the recent destination of their converted 767 airliner, the Google Jet. They're attending a massive company get-together, Be Connected 2007, in the Spanish city, along with Google CEO Eric Schmidt. According to this Spanish blog, more than 3,000 people are attending, including a big contingent, tipsters say, from Google's Zurich office. "The restaurants are packed with Googler," reports a besieged Sevillero. They're being entertained with free meals — no change from the ordinary, pampered life of a Googler there — as well as performance by French music group Gipsy Kings. The conference runs through tomorrow.
If Wednesday's sighting of the Google Jet — the converted 767 privately owned by company founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin — was accurate, we may know where they Google duo are headed next. Commenter smpte tips us that the plane, operated by TAG Aviation, took off from Moffet Field earlier today and is, at this moment, flying over Maine en route to Seville, Spain. Anyone know what kind of Andalusian adventure Page, Brin, or both might be up to? Let us know.
