Now that’s what I call conspicuous consumption! Story here. I guess it’s the Sultan of Brunei or an Arab prince.
Or one of those Russian [del]embezzlers[/del] businessmen.
That’s not personal use - that’s possession with intent to distribute passengers.
… which doubled sales for 2007.
What? You don’t have one yet?
Hopefully it’s not for one ginormous bomb.
“… personal use for him and his entourage. …”
Buddy, time to trim back on your entourage.
It’s probably Pac-Man Jones. How else is he gonna get all his buddies to strip clubs so they can shoot up the place?
He can look down at all those compensators in their Hummers.
“I am the uber-compensator!”
Heck, I think the Sultan of Brunei has a 747 to fly his racing horses around. You’re nothing if you don’t have a double decker.
The article mentioned, “But using the model as a private jet could be problematic, because its weight and size mean it can only be landed at a limited number of airports, by certain pilots.”
That’s the reason I decided against getting one of these.
Well, heck, if you can afford one, you can afford a place to keep it! 
Now I’m wondering whether it has an internal staircase or ramp for exiting the plane. If you’re the Sultan of Brunei arriving in your personal A380, are you really going to taxi it up to the same gates the cattle class use?
I figured the guy who bought it has a company that builds runways. He’s paying for the plane out of the profits from the construction contracts to extend the runways so that he can land the plane there.
Hell of a business model; I wish I’d thought of it.
Hmm, is it too late to buy a one-inch strip of land around every airport in the world?
It’s the one I returned this morning. He got it ‘used’ at half price.
That’s the beauty of it. He’s not going to do anything with it…
He must have a *really *small penis.
Early in my career at Boeing I helped build a 747 for a rich guy from the Middle East. Gold plated fixtures in the lavatories, silk tapestries on the walls, cashmere carpeting on the floors and a projection TV in the back. That was about 25 years ago and it didn’t even make the news. Boeing now offers Business Jets across the entire family of planes for those that have too much money. In fact, we have a 737 BBJ in the line right now that is allegedly being purchased by John Travolta. He is already licensed to fly 707’s, a 737 flight deck is somewhat similar so it would be no problem for him to fly one.
I heard this acronym last night on the History Channel’s Modern Marvels: Private aircraft.
It still makes me chuckle…
I’m assuming the process to get the silk and cashmere, and the TV certified for use in an airplane is tedious and expensive, but if you can afford your own 747, you don’t really care what it costs.
From past experience, I know that the upholstery fabric needs to be blessed by the FAA, and costs several times as much as normal upholstery fabric. And you just don’t want to know how expensive the padding is! :eek: