Google’s Sergey Brin Will Splash $100M On ‘Air Yacht’ — Will It Also Ferry Humanitarian Aid?
Image by getty images
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is in the midst of constructing what will become the world’s largest aircraft, a blimp that will supposedly double as both a luxury “air yacht” and a humanitarian aid carrier able to bypass road traffic and airport congestion. Sources close to the project peg the eventual cost at up to $150 million.
The blimp, according to the Washington Post, is being built at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif, and will reach a length of more than 200 yards.
Original plans for the blimp included hydrogen as a lifting gas, a cheaper and more effective alternative to helium. Hydrogen, of course, was the lifting gas used on the Hindenburg, the notorious 1937 aircraft that claimed 36 lives. Today, FAA regulations require all airships to use non-flammable lifting gasses, so the hydrogen plan was scrapped, and helium will be used in its place.
Whether Brin’s luxury blimp is a yacht disguised as a humanitarian vehicle has become a subject of debate.
“A flying yacht that’s also going to do deliver assistance is long on the yacht part and a little short on the humanitarian aid part,” said Rob Enderle, technology industry analyst at the analysis firm Enderle Group, told the Washington Post. “I guess [Brin] was looking for a tax deduction. Maybe he can cut back on taxes and operational costs.”
__
Contact Jesse Bernstein at [email protected] or on Twitter @__jbernstein
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
