What's The Most Expensive Private Jet Ever Made & Who Owns It?

As long as there are planes and there are rich people who can afford them, there will be private jets. But there are still multiple levels in the private jet game, with some unbelievably wealthy owners building unrivaled sky luxuries most of us couldn't even dream of, even on land. However, finding out which one out of all these extravagant planes is the most expensive and who its owner is, isn't as easy as you might think. One of the most important components for good security is anonymity, and many non-famous wealthy people hold that as a near and dear value. While it's relatively easy to find out the most expensive celebrity private jets, it's almost impossible to know who has bought a plane if they don't wish to be known.

Initial research brought up a contender we had to do away with: a "flying palace" Airbus A380, which got a lot of people talking. It was supposed to have 25 bedrooms, a personal concert room, a hologram-equipped office, a wellness room with floors that show you the ground or clouds underneath the plane, and all sorts of luxuries and amenities. It would have cost anywhere between $370 and $500 million in 2007, which would make it the most expensive jet even today — accounting for inflation — but Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud never went through with it.

There are only a handful of private planes that have cost more than 300 million dollars. If we aren't counting the US president's Air Force One, and the unverified rumors about Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov's Airbus A340, that leaves one serious contender: a Boeing 747-8i VIP owned by an anonymous Middle-Eastern businessman who paid around $400 million for it.

When Parisian design house Alberto Pinto received the request to design the BBJ Boeing 747-8i, it was by far the biggest plane they had ever worked on. With 4,521 square feet of aircraft space, this is a rare plane usually reserved for royals and governments; it stands as one of the largest and most expensive passenger jets, seating over 400 passengers if flown commercially. The agency, already famous for some outstanding private jet designs, was given the freedom to do what they thought was best for this multimillion-dollar project with only a budget and the client's desire for simplicity as guides. Amazingly, after four years of work, Alberto Pinto delivered in 2015 on time and under budget.

This $400 million sky mansion features a master bedroom in the quiet nose of the aircraft with a walk-in shower, an upper deck with a generously large living room, featuring bookshelves and a high-res TV, behind that is a play area for kids, all the guest rooms are kitted with their own bathrooms and vanities, the jet also has stately lounges, passenger seats, and crew quarters. The design firm says all the furniture and fixtures were made with only the best-quality materials; African Wakapou and Sycamore wood, for example, silk fabrics, and all natural leathers — coming together to give it a nice, classy French atmosphere. While this is probably the most expensive private jet at the moment, it's presumably only a matter of time before another billionaire commissions something even more opulent.