Elon Musk’s private jet: Gulfstream G700 – The Tesla boss’s 78-million-euro plane

Elon Musk builds electric cars, wants to fly to Mars and has bought Twitter – but his own means of transportation of choice is a kerosene-burner: the Gulfstream G700 for 78 million dollars. A student named Jack Sweeney tracked every flight with the @ElonJet tracking bot for years, Musk offered him 5,000 dollars to stop – Sweeney refused. When Musk bought Twitter, he blocked the account. Few stories better illustrate what a private jet means to this man.

Gulfstream G700: Technical details

The Gulfstream G700 is the current flagship of Gulfstream Aerospace:

• Range: 13,890 km (New York to Dubai non-stop)
• Speed: Mach 0.925 (fastest cruising speed in its class)
• Cabin: 5 living areas, 19 passengers max., double bed, bedroom
• Cabin height: 1.96 m – the highest headroom of all business jets
• Engine: 2x Rolls-Royce Pearl 700
• List price: 78 million dollars (as of 2024)

The special feature of the G700: the panoramic windows – 20 oval glass windows, 60% more light incidence than its predecessor, the G650ER. For a man who sits in meetings during the day and flies at night, that makes a difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy5vHv9ZWlA

Five living zones on 18 meters cabin length

At 18.40 meters, the G700 has the longest cabin in the Gulfstream portfolio. Musk presumably uses it as follows – based on the official cabin layout and known adaptations:

Zone 1 (forward lounge): Meeting area, often with conference table. In Musk’s case: presumably a work area for laptop sessions over the Atlantic. Zone 2+3 (center salon): Lounge with relaxation format. Zone 4: Sleeping compartment with real double bed. Zone 5 (aft cabin): Crew area or second bedroom.

The Gulfstream G700 in charter ranges from 15,000 to 22,000 euros per hour, depending on the route and operator.

Musk and his jets: what the tracking dispute really shows

The @ElonJet scandal was more than just a Twitter story. It raised a fundamental question: Are the movements of private jets – based on publicly available transponder data – part of the public domain? In the USA: yes, legally. In the EU: more restricted due to GDPR considerations.

What remains: Musk’s G700 is one of the most watched airplanes in the world. It lands in Austin, flies to Washington, docks in Berlin. Every landing is a signal: where is the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, X and Neuralink right now?

For most people, the G700 is out of reach. But the category below it – heavy jets with long-haul capacity from Germany – is bookable. Whether to London, Dubai or New York: private jet charter with price comparison and current availability – with no minimum booking volume.

His direct counterpart in the technology billionaire class: Jeff Bezos flies two Gulfstream G650ERs – which raises the question of why one of the richest people in the world chooses the cheaper model. For anyone who wants to know how else Musk and Bezos invest their money: FIV has analyzed the celebrity investments in luxury watches by Musk, Bezos and Buffett.