Airliner As Corporate Jet Is Not That Unusual

Computer-company moguls and corporate jets just seem to go together; for instance, Apple's board once presented CEO Steve Jobs with a Gulfstream V as a little token of gratitude for saving the company from what seemed to be impending doom. But just in time for the National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando, FL we learned that Jobs's Gulfstream is an also-ran in the corporate-jet-measuring contest: Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are adding a second Gulfstream to the Google fleet.

Oh yeah, and a Boeing 767-200.

The Google 767 is actually not the property of the company (where its use might get a hairy eyeball from shareholders), but a private asset of Brin and Page. The wide-body 767 is used by a number of other corporate high-rollers; the retired airliners are the largest members of the United States GA fleet.

The word that the Google guys were becoming 767 operators surprised many Americans, including a lot of the newsmen writing about it. But judging from the reaction at NBAA, there's nothing unusual about airliners repurposed as executive jets.

Perhaps as many as 15 individuals and corporations own the roomy, long-ranging 767 as personal or executive transports, and more enter the fleet all the time. There are other ex-airline jets in the fleet as well: most people know about avid pilot and occasional actor John Travolta's 707, and most people don't know about Microsoft founder and SpaceShipOne sponsor Paul Allen's 757. Er, make that two 757s. And a fleet of other planes.

Ah, but Allen doesn't have a 767.

Larry Ellison of Oracle doesn't have one either, but he does have an order in for an ATG Javelin. He must figure that velocity trumps mass.

And Bill Gates hasn't weighed in, in the heavy-jet stakes. Would he spring for a 767? (Probably not. He's a NetJets fractional customer).

A press release from Lufthansa Technik mentions that their completion center is prepared to outfit a private Airbus A380. It didn't say anybody was actually doing it, but if someone does, they're ready to attack the job with Teutonic efficiency.

The 767-200 was purchased by Google founders Page (above) and Brin earlier this year. It has reportedly been at a San Antonio completion center since May, being fitted with a comfortable interior for up to fifty. The keystone of the interior fitment is a pair of staterooms with private restrooms and shower.

Here at NBAA, several vendors have mentioned systems fitted on "a privately owned 767." The latest avionics. Enhanced night vision for the pilots. Wireless broadband throughout the passenger cabin.

Wireless broadband?! That has to be the Google plane! Doesn't it?

Maybe, but maybe not. No one will confirm or deny who his actual customer is. "A customer who values privacy," one outfitter said archly. And broadband is even less unusual than a private 767; a day spent in press conferences, undergoing Slow Death By PowerPoint, makes it clear that one of the big coming things is broadband on bizjets.

Returning to the Google bird, broadband or no, the mention of "up to fifty seats" is suggestive. It would be impossible to fit more than fifty seats without tangling with FAA regulations. But the aircraft only needs to have about 25 to 30 passengers on board to be as efficient per seat-mile as the much smaller Gulfstream V. It costs about twice as much per hour to operate as the G-V (below).

Google's Page defended the purchase to the Wall Street Journal as "fact-based." The used 767, a veteran of airline service, was likely a fraction of the nearly $50 million cost of a new top-of-the-line Gulfstream.

The VIP interior almost certainly cost more than acquiring the basic plane did. While there is literally no limit to what high-rollers can spend on a custom interior, the Brin/Page bird's arrangement is relatively modest. Comparatively speaking.

Last week, Wall Street Journal reporters Kevin Delaney, Lynn Lunsford, and Mark Maremont traced an ex-Qantas 767 to Google's headquarters through FAA and telephone records, and then spoke to Google's Larry Page, after existence of the plane was revealed by blogger Jeffrey Nolan.

The final question remaining, of course, is what the jet will be called. Search-Engine Twin-Engine? Google One? The Plane a Simple Search Page Built? Most likely, it will be known simply by its N-number as it makes its way through the world's airways -- Page suggests that Africa may be a port of call.

But Google One has a certain resonance. Er, make that, Google One Heavy.

Here at NBAA, one wonders how many jet brokers have been leaving voicemail for Steve Jobs.

FMI: www.google.com (where else?)