# In The List of Billionaire's Toys. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 10, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929 "2007-11-10T16:50:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/21 "2007-11-12T14:47:58Z")
Mach 2? Well if you have tiny penis Mach 2 might do. SR-71 Blackbird, now that is something for a nice Sunday flight, just seeing the sights. Perhaps a X-15 for working. Private submarines are where it’s at baby. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/22 "2007-11-12T15:02:19Z")
[Here](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19098268/)’s a Forbes article on fast business jets. According to it, the fastest one is the Cessna Citation X, which can go Mach 0.92 and the Falcon 7X can do Mach 0.9. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/23 "2007-11-12T17:40:14Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] If you are asking why someone doesn’t do it as a stunt, most billionaires aren’t that interested in aviation. Warren Buffet doesn’t care about that at all and Bill Gates doesn’t seem to either. [/QUOTE] Among the super-rich, the one-upsmanship is on water. These guys have massive yachts. Microsoft’s Paul Allen has a 413-foot yacht called the _Octopus_. Oracle’s Larry Ellison has his America’s Cup yachts and to say “Mine’s bigger!” his _Rising Sun_ is 432 feet long and is fifth-largest in the world, and largest in the US. Paul has to be content with only having the world’s sixth-largest. If you jigger the charts to include only privately-owned vessels, Larry’s is the second-largest in the world, and he’s probably very unhappy at this. Warren Buffett’s a whole lot more practical - it seems as if a large part of why he has so much money is because he doesn’t blow it on frivolous things. His daily ride is a 2001 Lincoln Town Car, and he doesn’t seem to have much interest in sailing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/24 "2007-11-12T21:40:13Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Large airliners are so expensive that they would severely tax the finances of even the average billionaire. Even the average billionaire couldn’t afford to buy and customize a new 747. The upfront cost would be about $300,000,000 for a customized new one and the operating costs would be thousands of dollars per hour. [/QUOTE] How about an [Airbus A380?](http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22750031-36418,00.html) > [@](#): > > SAUDI billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has become the first person to buy the ultimate status symbol – his own A380 superjumbo. > Planemaker Airbus named the Saudi royal, whose interests span hotels and banking to the operator of Disneyland Paris, as the mystery buyer of a VIP version dubbed the Flying Palace. > > The buyer’s identity had been secret for months but was unveiled to coincide with the Dubai air show today. > > The price of the deal was not disclosed. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich recently denied buying the plane, which costs over $US300 million ($331.69 million) to ordinary airlines. He’s not even in the top ten billionaires. > [@](#): > > He is the world’s 13th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, and Citigroup’s largest individual shareholder. Admittedly, he’s close. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/25 "2007-11-12T21:50:07Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] How about an [Airbus A380?](http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22750031-36418,00.html)He’s not even in the top ten billionaires.Admittedly, he’s close. [/QUOTE] I don’t mean that no billionaires could afford to buy a large airliner. However, someone that has just $1 billion is going to have a hard time buying, customizing, and flying a 747 or an A380. I suppose they tecnically could but it probably isn’t smart to spend about half your net worth owning and operating a cutomized airliner. You could buy a tricked out business jet for $50 million or so. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/26 "2007-11-12T21:56:14Z")
Super duper rich people don’t really need to be anywhere in a hurry. At least not bad enough to justify the cost. Really, who isn’t going to wait for Bill Gates or the Sultan of Brunei? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/27 "2007-11-12T22:04:24Z")
Heck, John Travolta has a [707.](http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_nov2004/Travolta_House.htm) . ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/28 "2007-11-12T22:54:19Z")
When I am a Billionaire, I will buy a Concorde, just because of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Tully\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@Tully\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tully_Mars)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929/29 "2007-11-13T00:20:12Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] Pfft! A real man _shows up_ in a fighter jet, but _leaves_ in an SST so that the woman he’s seduced can ride in comfort. 🆒 [/QUOTE] A real man shows up in his Grumman Goose or Albatross and picks up his dusky beauty waiting on the dock and, without killing the engines, turns, lifts off, and departs for a snowy white, uninhabited beach with a week’s supply of gourmet picnic goodies … I had had a billion dollars, I bet I could hook that up. Because, you know, chicks dig guys with a billion dollars. At least the type of dusky beauties that would whisk away with a dude like me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-list-of-billionaires-toys/425929.md?page=1)