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Sergey Brin is building the world’s biggest aircraft for humanitarian missions and family trips

Sergey Brin is building the world’s biggest aircraft for humanitarian missions and family trips

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The price tag has reportedly ballooned to over $100 million

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin's secret airship will be used for humanitarian missions, but it will also serve as a giant RV in the sky for his friends and family, according to The Guardian. Citing sources familiar with the project, the report says Brin wants to use the aircraft to “deliver supplies and food on humanitarian missions to remote locations,” but also as a “luxurious intercontinental “air yacht” for [his] friends and family.”

The dirigible, which was first revealed by Bloomberg one month ago, is reportedly going to wind up being the biggest aircraft in the world at 200 meters long. (That’s twice the length of the “flying bum,” as long as we’re measuring.) It will use helium instead of flammable hydrogen, and the project supposedly carries a price tag of $100–$150 million — funded completely by Brin.

The giant humanitarian sky yacht is being built at Moffett airfield, which is part of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Northern California, where Google’s Planetary Ventures division holds a 60-year lease valued at $1 billion. Brin even has a former Ames head running the project, and as of last month the team reportedly had a full metal frame constructed.

Brin, who had employees jump out of a plane while wearing Google Glass in 2012, isn’t the only Google exec who’s fascinated with air travel. His co-founder Larry Page has a hand in two different “flying car” projects — one of which will supposedly be available at the end of this year.