A Coveted Landing Strip for Google's Founders

An anonymous reader writes "The NYT reports, "In the annals of perks enjoyed by America's corporate executives, the founders of Google may have set a new standard: an uncrowded, federally managed runway for their private jet that is only a few minutes' drive from their offices. For $1.3 million a year, Larry Page and Sergey Brin get to park their customized wide-body Boeing 767-200, as well as two other jets used by top Google executives, on Moffett Field, an airport run by NASA that is generally closed to private aircraft."

Re:Money! Money! Money!

[Silver Sloth]

Well usually money gains access to stuff when you spend them.

Not if you have enough of it. Not only does money always fall on the biggest pile but the super rich have always enjoyed freebees that us mere mortals can only (wet) dream of.

As an example from history, when Queen Elizabeth the 1st of England went on her travels it was expected that the local gentry would provide accomadation for free. This was a double edged sword for the provider - staying in the queen's good books was important but putting her up could cost as much as six month's worth of the typical income for the provider. So the queen, the richest person in the land, was getting freebee board and lodge, and at the highest posible level.

No Ad link

[jsse]

Click here [nytimes.com] for no ad link.

BTW, even Bush could find this link in the article easily, so please don't mod.

Just a 767?

[Toreo asesino]

Lame!

This guy's got the right idea - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6768237.stm [bbc.co.uk]

Ok, ok, so it's not like you can take the kids to the park with it, but why goto a park when you can just have your own built on-board?

Re:Larry's had that for a while

[mlk]

. For $1.3 million a year

To me that sounds like is not "taxpayer funded".

Re:Larry's had that for a while

[couchslug]

They are paying for the ramp space. No way is this a loss to the taxpayer (the ramp was already there) and it makes a few bucks for NASA. That much money more than covers their few launches and recoveries.

Re:Larry's had that for a while

[JordanL]

Having an idea that works in the market is luck? Getting into MIT is luck?

I think if there is one thing that is just plain hard work, it's getting into MIT.

Not really a special deal.

[lancejjj]

For those who are not familiar with the operations of Moffett Field:

Moffett has fairly extensive facilities that are not nearly as heavily utilized as they were during the cold war and WW2, and it is in the heart of Silicon Valley.

Moffett is no longer a military base, but a federal facility that is used for many purposes - mostly but not exclusively centered around technology.

For perhaps a decade, NASA has been leasing out commercial space to private enterprises at Moffett for not only NASA-related research operations, but for general, business operations of private institutions. In additional, there are private educational institutions at Moffett.

Re:misuse of a public resource

[Sparky McGruff]

For those of you not familiar with the politics, a few years back, San Jose wanted to close Reid-Hillview airport, a small general aviation airstrip, because of "safety concerns" and complaints by the neighbors. Part of the plan was to free up space at SJC by annexing Moffett field and moving the air freight operations there. A great deal for SJC, they get to run air cargo planes in the middle of the night. A great deal for San Jose, because they'd get to collect the tax revenue, and the noise wouldn't bother any San Jose residents. A bad deal for the residents of Mountain View and Sunnyvale, because they get all of the noise, and they'd have absolutely no say in the operation (as it would be owned by San Jose). Strangely enough, the residents of Mountain View and Sunnyvale thought it would be a bad deal.

Re:not evil? how about global warming?

[UbuntuDupe]

Not to defend an environmentalist talking point, but...

I think the above claim *really* means to say that the exhaust contains one ton of CO2 per person. But its exhaust doesn't merely come from what's on the airplane. In its combustion process, it takes O2 from the atmosphere, and combines it with the C in the fuel. (C + O2 -> CO2) So that figure includes not just stuff in the fuel tank, but also O2 that was taken from the atmosphere and then returned in the form of CO2. The fact that the fuel tank can't carry that mass, doesn't mean it can't emit that much CO2.

I worked at NASA Ames - I think it's a good idea.

[jCaT]

Lest anyone think they are taking up valuable government resources that could be used for something else- Moffett has been essentially idle for the last twenty years. It was decomissioned some time ago, and now the only use that the runways get is the occasional research plane for NASA and AWACS flights.

I worked at NASA Ames (which has basically taken over the whole Moffett campus, since they're all together.) We did tours of the different areas there, and I think the most fun was touring "Hangar 1" and talking to the guys in the tower for the airstrip. They basically sat around all day drinking coffee, waiting for the one or two planes per day they had taking off or landing. The only excitement they ever got was the occasional presidential flight- when chelsea was going to Stanford, clinton would fly in to Moffett.

I think it's a great idea, and they should do more of it- lots of land developers are salivating at the huge chunk of real estate that moffett has there. On top of that, they're trying to demolish Hangar 1 [savehangarone.org], since it's full of toxic substances, the upkeep on it is really expensive, and it's not doing anything (well, except being a stage for a recent Lexus commercial.)

Re:I never understood dipwads like you...

[Anonymous Coward]

In my opinion, Google has decided to take advantage of this area simple BECAUSE their millionare employees don't live there. You can bet your bottom dollar if there were $1M houses there and a significant number of their employees living there they wouldn't even think about it.

That's absurd. The landing pattern for Moffett field is directly over Sunnyvale, CA, where thousands of Google employees live. However, you can easily bicycle over to the base from Google's sprawling Mountain View complex.

An occasional Air National Guard Pavehawk, C-130, or rented Volga-Dnepr [af.mil] fly overhead, but on the order of once or twice a day. The Sunnyvale city council has fought hard to keep the base there because otherwise it would become a commercial airport, which would make Sunnyvale a very noisy place to live. This is despite the fact it's so expensive to live in the valley many ANG servicemembers drive hours from the East Bay -- so much so that most people there work 4 10-hour days.