Google Founders Buy Fighter Jet

Ponca City, We love you writes "The NY Times reports that H211 LLC, a company controlled by Google's top executives, including billionaire founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, appears to have added to its fleet a Dornier Alpha Jet, a light jet attack and advanced trainer aircraft manufactured by Dornier of Germany and Dassault-Breguet of France. The 1982 Alpha-Jet seats two and was originally used by European air forces, but is now being sold relatively cheaply to civilians. The jet has landing rights at Moffett Field, the NASA-operated airfield that is a stone's throw from the Google campus. It is not clear who exactly flies the fighter jet, although Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is an avid pilot. If the top Googlers indeed own the fighter jet, they would be following in the footsteps of Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, who has owned several aircraft, including fighter jets."

Should it be asked?

Are these guys Yahoos??

In other news

In other news, Microsoft is installing anti-aircraft emplacements

When spear meets shield...

Fighter jet, which has been in "Beta" for years.

AA guns, with targeting system running Vista.

Ought to be a good show.

Re:In other news

Command And Conquer 5: Microsoft vs Google.

Take my tip - don't buy too many shipping crate data centres at the beginning as you're better off upgrading to an IPv6 infrastructure as early as possible.

Some people build up a massive force of tanks and try to wear MS down (the MS tanks are unreliable, they run their own software) but I prefer to create my own web browser and give away as much free email storage as I can. I don't like using too much lock-in if I'm playing as Google but it's unavoidable if you want to win.

I hate those "novelty" missions where you've got to get Balmer across the map or something.

hint

> It is not clear who exactly flies the fighter jet,

Hint: The Google AI

FYI

When fighter jets, tanks, etc. are sold to civilians, most of the fun stuff is ripped out.

This is basically the rich fuck's version of buying a sports car when you're 50 to stroke your ego.

Funny thing to have around

Isn't it hard to live up to "do no evil" when you have a strike-capable air force? This is a slippery slope, indeed. I think the next time the Yahoo! talks escalate, things just might go a little differently.

Far out thought

This is beyond the realm of reality so cut me some slack...

Corporations (or their top execs) are starting to buy military hardware. Do you think we will ever see a corporation declare war on another corporation?

Gives a whole new meaning to hostile takeover...

Re:Far out thought

This is beyond the realm of reality so cut me some slack... Corporations (or their top execs) are starting to buy military hardware. Do you think we will ever see a corporation declare war on another corporation? Gives a whole new meaning to hostile takeover...

You mean like the East India Company [wikipedia.org]?

Re:Far out thought

Corporations (or their top execs) are starting to buy military hardware. Do you think we will ever see a corporation declare war on another corporation?

Corporations have, relatively recently, declared war on other countries, not just other companies.

The British & Dutch East India Trading Company is the first one that comes to mind which had an army, navy, minted money, warred with countries & companies and setup & administered governments.

We talk about corporate influence in government, but what exists now pales in comparison to the overt control and militarism of years gone past.

It's a trainer

It's an advanced trainer. It's a toy. (albeit a rich man's toy). What's the big deal -- he already owns several aircraft. This isn't even uncommon.

Now, if you told me he bought a couple of fully armed F22's, THAT would be news. (you may, of course, substitute your plane of choice for the F22)

Finally Google shifts to Iceland

Well they have the cheap geothermal power and the free cooling for the datacenters. The only hitch was how out of the way iceland is. But it does have an abandoned NATO airfield so now that the top execs can jet in and out in an hour or so at supersonic speeds goodbye Silicon Valley Hello Reykjavik. Solves all the turnover problem too as in "You want to leave Google and join Microsoft. Fine as soon as you get security clearance from the Icelandic government you can leave (never that is)" With Iceland being bankrupt they would sell their souls and change their national anthem to "Do no evil" if Google comes calling.

Pot, meet Kettle

I see you own a computer. Surely you could have sent your money to Africa instead?

Re:Pot, meet Kettle

Hmm. Using the fighter jet to take out clumps of corrupt African officials may be the single best piece of charity Sergei and Brin could ever offer them, as at least them the money us regular folks send over might have a chance of actually reaching the citizens and being used for its intended purposes. :-)

Re:Pot, meet Kettle

Wouldn't work. What ever governments replaced the ones wiped out would become corrupt in a few, short years. Just look at Zimbabwe if you need an example.

Re:Pot, meet Kettle

Zimbabwe has had the same leader since the first post-independence election in 1980. Not sure how that supports your point.

Re:That's right, mods

So everyone with more money than you should give it all to charity?

You think those starving children in Africa wouldn't go out for a meal at a fancy restaurant if they were given a billion pounds? Then perhaps buy some nice shoes? They could just use it to buy everyone in their country just the right amount of food to make sure they're not classed as 'starving' for a while, but I highly suspect they might want to enjoy themselves a little too. They might even buy a bike or a car. You know, some people like to have fun occasionally, when it is within their means?

I'm very sure Larry and Sergey have caused more money to go to charity [bbc.co.uk] than you ever will. Just because they also want to use their money - money that they have earned by creating an excellent business - to have a bit of fun doesn't make them evil. It's easy to point the finger, but I bet you'd buy a nice car and house if you were a billionaire, rather than live in a slum. Any of us slashdotters could survive on a lot less than what we have. Why do you even have a slashdot account and access to a computer? Why aren't you out there earning as much money as you can so that you can redistribute the wealth?

The problem is not with our "consumerist culture", it's with corrupt and moronic governments who run their countries into the ground and treat their citizens like shit. No amount of charity is going to turn a country like that around if its leaders are corrupt.

Re:That's right, mods

So what is the jet really for, though? For fun? According to another article [gawker.com]...

Science, of course! H211 LLC uses many of its jets for NASA-sponsored experiments, since they operate primarily out of Moffett field, a NASA-controlled airstrip that's conveniently located right next to Google's Mountain View HQ. The jet was acquired to carry scientific instruments that could not be rigged up to Boeing 757/767 and Gulfstream jets the company already operates, some of which were used to monitor the re-entry of the ESA's Jules Verne satellite.

Re:That's right, mods

Sam Walton is dead. It's difficult to drive a pickup while afflicted with such a condition.

Re:So?

Yes, Red Bull is definitely evil. You can tell by the taste.

Re:So?

Yes, Red Bull is definitely evil. You can tell by the taste.

Or by it's association with Jagermeister.

Re:So?

Red Bull: The Taste of Evil.

It gives you wings, but they don't say the wings are featherless...

Re:Not that unusual.

The Governator owns a number of tanks. Including the one he drove when he was in the military.

Mig-21 on Ebay a couple weeks ago

There was a former Czech air force MIG-21 for sale on Ebay a couple weeks ago with a "buy it now" price of only $45K. The aircraft was located in Ohio and was in ready-to-fly restored condition, and is actively flown in air shows. While the purchase price was cheap, it is hideously expensive to operate a MIG-21. A half-hour flight consumes almost $2000 worth of Jet-A fuel. Also a MIG-21 can only carry about two hour's worth of fuel onboard anyway. The engine in it has to be overhauled at a cost of over $100K about every 250 hours of flight time too, since Russian jet engines are built with such loose mechanical tolerances in the moving parts.

Re:Not that unusual.

Most likely they purchased it through a privately held company because companies have lessened license restrictions for purchasing any class of weapon (ie, if you want to own an RPG legally, just start a corporation and you can buy whatever you want). I'm not sure if licensure is necessary for military aircraft (even decommissioned) but who knows, maybe that's the reason? Plus if they'd bought it through google maybe they'd be concerned about a shareholder backlash? These are just guesses btw, but its what I would surmise.

But if they used Google Checkout, they could have gotten $10 dollars off.