Google purchased a research plane for NASA

The arrangement was made in exchange for permission to land at the Moft NASA base, to which Google's management offices are adjacent, for three of the company's executive planes

A company owned by the founders of Google purchased a 1982 Alpha Dornier jet that was used for light attacks. H211 LLC has several aircraft that are frequently used by Macy Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. In an unusual agreement signed last year, H211 was granted permission to land at an airfield located near the southern end of San Francisco Bay, California. This is not an ordinary field, this is a master field, which is owned by NASA.

Not everyone can park their private plane at Sde Moft. In fact, being located near Silicon Valley, Moft field attracts hi-tech billionaires, to get permits to fly and land there. But there is a problem, Muft field is not a normal landing strip, it is owned by NASA. NASA is a government branch and therefore comes with certain laws. If the aircraft has no direct connection to the research done at NASA, or to a military flight, it will have to find another place to land. So whether you're Bill Gates or Queen Elizabeth - assuming it's not an emergency landing - you can't use the landing strip, unless you're connected to one of the researches being carried out at NASA.

But in an agreement described as a "win-win" situation for NASA, on July 31, 2007, Ken Ambrose, CEO of the H211 Company, signed a contract to lease a landing zone for four planes at Muft Field. These passenger planes included a Boeing 757, a Boeing 767 and two Gulfstream VS planes, which are regularly used by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin in conducting transactions for the H211 and Google. So how did they do it?

In exchange for the use of the NASA site, H211 agreed that NASA would use its aircraft in scientific research (that is, it would help NASA in certain experiments in the study of atmospheric chemistry, ozone depletion and lightning detection), and in addition a not bad sum of 1.3 million dollars per year for the rent.

But then a problem arose, in order for NASA to use the flight of the four planes, they must be adapted. Any such adjustment would require approval from the Federal Aviation Administration since the planes are passenger planes. This was the only obstacle that prevented Page and Breen from giving up the long-awaited landing spot.

So, H211 bought a military plane and thus solved the problem. The German attack aircraft, the 26-year-old Dornier Alpha Jet, is suitable for NASA's needs, so that it is now being adapted to serve as a civilian passenger aircraft in Seattle, before experiments begin to be carried out with it.

"The Alpha Jet they purchased was considered an experimental aircraft, so now we don't have the problems we had with the passenger planes," says Steve Zornzer, director of NASA's Ames Research Center.

Google's administrative flights make up 1% of the annual air traffic at Sde Moft. 88 flights out of about 19,000 last year were for Google business.

For information on the Universe Today website