A personal A380 Airbus for a Middle Eastern Sheikh


And you believed that a luxurious private Gulfstream or Lear jet is the ultimate way to fly? Not any more. Most recently, the world’s superrich is buying BIG planes….the same kind of widebody Boeing (BA) and Airbus jets the airlines use on long-haul flights. And if that’s not enough, these planes are further outfitted with everything from his-and-hers bathrooms to onboard movie theaters. ‘Private jets are becoming flying apartments’! Pierrejean Doret, the aircraft-interior specialist, has done preliminary designs for a wealthy Middle Eastern client who wants to buy an A380 for personal use. Among the amenities he has requested are an onboard movie theater, a prayer room, and a discotheque. With features like that, why bother landing? The $300 million planes will be extravagantly enhanced to suit the ‘Sheikh’s’ taste by spending at least an additional $100 million on the interior. Watch out for the video after the jump….



The Flying Palace is believed to encompass two dining areas, a 600-plus-square-foot master bedroom, a game room, and an Arabian desert-themed lounge with curtains that resemble tents and a fiber-optic mosaic of a shifting desert scene. What is most intriguing is Doret’s plan to create a whirlpool tub on the plane. The tub is designed in such a way that it can rapidly drain into the cargo hold if necessary. All this sounds very Hoity-toity but luxury also comes with its share of drawbacks. The major problem with large planes is they are too big to land at high-end jet ports as many have too short runways and lack the equipment to handle such behemoths. Are we looking forward to privately owned airports all over the world?

Written By