Bill Gates's Gulfstream G650ER flies from Palm Springs to Newark in 4h 18m

Bill Gates's Gulfstream G650ER, tail N887GV, flew from Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport in Palm Springs to Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, October 19, 2026. The flight took 4 hours and 18 minutes, departing at 14:28 UTC and landing at 18:46 UTC. The great-circle distance was 2,038 nautical miles, or 2,345 miles. The aircraft reached a top ground speed of 562 knots and a maximum altitude of 45,025 feet.

The Gulfstream G650ER is an ultra-long-range jet with a range of 7,500 nautical miles and a ceiling of 51,000 feet. It typically seats 12 passengers and can carry up to 19. This flight used about 27 percent of the aircraft's range. Our estimate puts fuel burned at about 2,020 US gallons, producing about 19,403 kilograms of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 48,028 miles.

Newark was not a destination for any of Bill Gates's tracked aircraft in the 30 days before this flight. The home base on file is King County International Airport, also known as Boeing Field, in Seattle. Usual destinations include Palm Springs, West Palm Beach, Las Vegas, and Bozeman. In the days before this trip, N887GV flew from Mountain View to Palm Springs on October 16, and from Oceanside to Mountain View on October 11. Two other aircraft landed at Newark in the 24 hours before this arrival: a Gulfstream G650ER linked to American Express, about 18 hours earlier, and a Boeing 737 MAX 8 BBJ linked to Evan Spiegel, under an hour earlier.

The FAA derives the Mode S hex from the registration, so the new N-number means a new hex. The old 'WM' tails no longer transmit. Two more MENTE LLC aircraft work out of the same Hangar 80 at Boeing Field: N608GV, a 2021 Airbus Helicopters MBB-BK117 D-3, and N897GV, a 2022 Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Both are short-hop assets around Puget Sound.

Bill Gates is a Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and investor with a net worth estimated at $104 to $107 billion. He focuses on global health, development, and climate philanthropy through the Gates Foundation, Gates Ventures, and Breakthrough Energy. His home base is in Seattle, and he owns properties in Palm Springs-area communities, Florida, and Montana. Newark is near New York City, where the Gates Foundation has held events and where Gates has spoken about AI and global health, though no specific appearance was confirmed for this date.

This flight follows a pattern of short hops around the Pacific Northwest and California in recent weeks. The aircraft had been on the ground for about three days before this trip, after landing at Palm Springs on October 16. The flight to Newark used a small share of the aircraft's range, leaving plenty of margin for a return leg or onward travel.

The most common destinations were Seattle and Mountain View, with three landings each. The longest leg in that window was from Denton to Seattle on October 2, covering 1,423 nautical miles. The departure field at Palm Springs has a longest runway of 8,500 feet and sits at an elevation of 115 feet below sea level.

The Gulfstream G650ER remains a workhorse for long domestic and international trips, and this cross-country hop fits that role. The aircraft is registered to MENTE LLC, the same holding company behind Bill Gates's other tracked planes.