Neighbors Concerned Other Private Planes Will Move In

Call it the ultimate parking space. The co-founders of Google, Inc. recently found a new place to park their jets... and it sounds like a great deal for both the guys from Google, and NASA.

The London Times reports Larry Page and Sergey Brin recently signed a $1.3 million deal with the space agency, to use NASA's Moffett Field test facility runway for their private 767-200 corporate jet, as well as two Gulfstream Vs.

The deal allows the Google titans to have their planes a literal stones-throw away from the company's offices in nearby Mountain View. Moffett Field is less than two miles from the Googleplex, straight as the crow flies. It's a roughly seven-minute drive... much closer than San Francisco International, or San Jose.

For NASA, the deal pumps needed cash into the Ames Research Facility... and gives NASA use of the Google planes on a limited basis, as well. In fact, the space agency already flew a mission on one of Google's Gulfstreams last month, to monitor a meteor shower.

"It was an opportunity for us to defray some of the fixed costs . . . to maintain the airfield as well as to have flights of opportunity for our science missions," NASA's Steven Zornetzer told The New York Times. "It seemed like a win-win situation."

Neighbors of Moffett Field -- used to relatively little traffic into and out of the government facility -- aren't sure opening Moffett's runways to private traffic is such a hot idea, though.

"The majority of the people in the community are against that," said local activist Lenny Siegel, who warned "the camel’s nose is under the tent" and NASA could agree to open other facilities to private use.

That scenario would be good news for pilots... but it's a possibility sure to give the NIMBYs a few headaches. Stay tuned.

FMI: www.google.com, www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html