Telstar Logistics knows a good parking scam when we see one, and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin have come up with a new trick that's as diabolical as it is clever.
Moffett Federal Airfield is a former US Naval Air Station in Silicon Valley that has been retained for exclusive use by the US government. The airport is home to an Air National Guard Unit (the 129th Rescue Wing), as well as the NASA Ames Research Center. Whenever POTUS comes to the Bay Area for a visit, Moffett becomes home base for Air Force One.
Regular commercial and civilian traffic is banned from Moffett, with one new exception: Larry and Sergey have received permission to land their corporate jet there. And what a corporate jet it is! The Google Boyz have a widebody Boeing 767 that previously flew as VH-EAQ for Quantas. Now clad in understated paint (shown above) and carrying registration N2767, the interior of the plane has reportedly been fitted with hammocks and a queen-size bed. Beneath the cabin floor however, the plane may also carry a few instruments for NASA. The San Francisco Chronicle details the terms of the deal:
Google Inc.'s founders will carry scientific equipment for NASA on their private Boeing 767 as part of a deal that grants them landing rights at Moffett Federal Airfield, near Mountain View, NASA and local officials said.
The agreement gives Larry Page and Sergey Brin use of the former naval air station, from which civilian aircraft are normally barred, in exchange for allowing the space agency to place instruments on board their planes for research into the Earth's atmosphere and beyond. [...]
The two-year deal between NASA and H211 LLC, a California limited liability company that is controlled by Google's founders, went into effect Aug. 1 and calls for the duo to pay NASA $1.3 million annually, plus extra fees for utilities, fuel and parking.
In an example of the cooperation with Google's founders, NASA said that Page and Brin had supplied two Gulfstream jets that took off from Moffett Field on Aug. 31 carrying scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute to observe and record data about the Aurigid meteor shower, including its brightness, its elemental composition and its penetration into the Earth's atmosphere. Viewing the event at high altitude offered a clearer view than on the ground.
However, some flights by Google's founders may have no link to research. A flight by their 767 from Moffett Field to Seville, Spain, last week, where Google was holding a sales conference, had no science component, NASA said.
Not just anyone can use Moffett Field, although many of Silicon Valley's superrich may want to, given its convenient location and lightly used landing strip. NASA grants permission only to planes that are related to its research and mission.
The airfield is used primarily by federal agencies, the military and government contractors.
Genius! If we'd known that's all it takes, we would have tried the whole "Don't mind us, we're doing NASA research" stunt long ago. Hats off to Larry and Sergey (and their lawyers) for thinking of it. Meanwhile, Telstar Logistics would also like to extend our sincere regrets to Oracle's Larry Ellison, who is no doubt hopping mad that he didn't come up with the idea first.
LINKS:
N2767 (Airliner.net photos of the Google plane)
Track the Google Jet (Live tracking of N2767)
(Photo above: The Google Plane, as photographed by Rudolph Schider)
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