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Sir Richard Branson's Private Jet
Ever wonder what it's like to be rich and famous and have your own private jet? Well, it looks a lot like this. Passing through the Mojave Desert airport last week, Gadling spotted Richard Branson's Falcon 900EX, the French made, long range, ultra luxe corporate jet.
Sporting a blown up decal of Branson's iris on the tail fin (the same, minus additional artistic work, done for Virgin Galactic), this jet has a maximum cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, speed of mach 0.87 (662 mph) and in its factory configuration can seat up to fourteen passengers. One can only imagine what sort of extravagances the Branson family has upgraded the aircraft with though. The range and speed of the aircraft make it perfect for important jetsetting moguls like Branson, who frequently needs to commute from his home United Kingdom to his island in the Caribbean to business in Southern California quickly.
Looking at the exterior of the aircraft, one can see that Sir Branson has clearly created this aircraft as a mobile advertisement for Virgin Galactic. In addition to the similar tail fin markings, the evolving VG aircraft have been stenciled near the cabin door, while the engine markings are G-GALX and the aircraft itself is named Galactic Girl.
Still, quite the improvement over conventional travel. Had Sir Branson not been buried under a phalanx of reporters we would have asked for a tour, but I suppose we'll have to save that for the next visit out to the desert.
Gallery: Richard Branson's Falcon 900EX
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Curt Aug 4th 2008 4:53PM
Not sure where your info came from but Falcon 900EX's routinely cruise in the 40,000+ range. At lighter weights its service ceiling is 51,000 - although they are rarely flown up that high.
Elizabeth Fry Aug 4th 2008 11:28PM
I always wondered myself what it's like inside a private jet. How many seats? Is it like a bachelor's condo in the sky? Perhaps Richard Branson or Donald Trump should retire one of their private jets and give Barbados for walk-about tours like on the Concord.
Baron Aug 5th 2008 10:25AM
I haven't flown on this particular Falcon, but one of our company's aircraft was a smaller version. It spoiled me to fly on it. No waiting in lines, no checking bags, etc. We could seat about 9 + pilots and maybe 1 staff person, but 3 of those seats were actually on a bench that was made for sleeping. The other seats were great chairs. We cruised at around 600mph and 35k feet for our flight, again, spoiled me.