Google founder Larry Page has a lot of money, and he’s been secretly spending it in just about the coolest way possible.
According to a Bloomberg Businessweek report, Page has personally funded flying car company Zee.Aero since its launch in 2010. He’s also been sternly demanding that his involvement stay hidden from the public, reporters there cited 10 insiders as saying.
Apparently, Page has spent more than $100 million of his own fortune on the near-150-person company. But the head honcho hasn’t stopped there.
Last year, Page backed a second flying car company, Kitty Hawk. Though some engineers and other key personnel have purportedly come over from Zee.Aero, Page has kept the two companies completely separated otherwise.
While flying cars have always felt like a pipe dream, there’s at least something coming to fruition out of the ventures, Hollister Municipal Airport employees told the publication.
“People working at the airport have caught glimpses of two Zee.Aero craft in recent months,” Bloomberg wrote. “Both have a narrow body, a bulbous cockpit with room for one person upfront, and a wing at the back.”
They’re pushed by two propellers in the rear. Otherwise, one prototype model looks like a “small conventional plane,” while the other “has spots for small propellers along the main body, three per side.”
And they’re quite loud: “When the aircraft take off, they sound like air raid sirens,” a source told the magazine. Not a great plan for staying secret.