14 DAY TRIAL // Google's top people may not look like your regular stodgy execs, with their Google Glasses and shoes with toes and so on, but that doesn't mean they don't enjoy some of the finer things in life, like private jets.
Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt have a fleet of jets at their disposal parked just outside the Googleplex at NASA's Ames Research Center at the Moffett Federal Airfield.
Their flights are about to get more expensive though, as Google may have to start paying for jet fuel what all the rest of us mere mortals pay for our jet fuel.
For many years, Google has been able to feed its private jets fuel subsidized by the government. This special Pentagon fuel has been part of a deal between Google and NASA going back to 2007.
The deal ended on August 31 and NASA has decided not to renew it. This comes after the Pentagon started to complain that Google was using the fuel for non-government flights.
Under the agreement between NASA and Google, the execs got to park their jets on the military airfield, the closest to the Googleplex, while the agency got to use them for scientific research.
For these scientific flights, the jets would be fueled by the government. Technically, the deal was with H211 LLC, a company set up to handle the seven jets and two helicopters owned by the Google execs.
But it seems that Google was able to buy the same fuel for their private flights as well. The subsidized fuel was the only one available at the federal airport. Since the deal ended, Google has bought fuel at other airfield and returned to Moffet with more fuel than needed.
NASA has said that it's working on a method of selling fuel to Google at regular, market prices. Meanwhile, Google is building its own airport.