The Gamer Jet is Real! And it costs $0*

Linus Tech Tips| 00:25:49|Apr 2, 2026
Chapters16
The video starts with the reveal of buying a jet, detailing how a Falcon 900B was procured with advice from family in aviation, the role of non-disclosure and “girl math” in making the purchase seem worthwhile, and a tease of sponsor Delta Hub.

Linus Tech Tips reveals the whole “zero-dollar” jet story, complete with engine refurbishments, a medevac kit, and a goofy but genuine passion for Influence Air.

Summary

Linus and his uncle pulled off a jaw-dropping purchase: a Falcon 900B jet that was initially framed as a bargain by the WAN show meme and a shrewd aviation background. The deal hinges on engine refurbishments already under a service program, plus a 12-year airframe service that pushed most costs onto the vendor, making the plane appear effectively free. Linus explains the math behind the “zero-dollar” claim, citing engine refurbishments worth roughly $1.1–$1.2 million each and a post-service condition guaranteed to meet Do specifications. The aircraft even includes a Medevac kit, with the promise of recouping value at divestiture if kept in top shape. Inside, the jet is a juxtaposition of luxury and old hardware: a 1990 airframe, gold-plated sinks, high-end cabin furnishings, and a cockpit with retro computing and weather radar. Linus candidly shares the safety caveats, maintenance overhead, and the realities of flying such a machine, including the tricky weight balance and the need for certified airframes and parts. The video also gives a practical sense of range (about 4,000 nautical miles on a full tank) and real-world range implications from Vancouver across North America, plus the rough cost of in-flight Wi‑Fi. Interspersed with clips of the cockpit and cabin, Linus and Lance reveal the surprising practicality of the jet for company trips and even casual family travel, all while keeping a sense of humor about the spectacle. The sponsor bits (Delta Hub) are slotted into the tour, but the core takeaway is that this machine is redefining what “cost of ownership” can look like when you wrap depreciation, refits, and strategic negotiations into one package.

Key Takeaways

  • Engine refurbishments: the three Falcon 900B engines were refurbished to near-zero hours under a service program, each valued at about $1.1–$1.2 million.
  • 12-year service and Do-spec guarantee: the airframe underwent a full 12-year check aimed at restoring it to factory specifications, a cost that essentially offsets the rest of the purchase price.
  • Medevac capability and potential resale: the jet includes a Medevac kit and, if maintained well, could be resold for roughly the purchase price or more when divesting.
  • Operational economics: Linus explains a form of 'girl math' where the ongoing operation costs are minimized so that the jet feels almost free to own and use for high-utility trips.
  • Range and airport access: about 4,000 nautical miles on a full fill; can operate from relatively short runways (~4,500 ft), enabling continent-spanning, non-stop hops in North America.
  • Cabin and cockpit reality: the cabin features luxury seating that converts to a bed, a retro cockpit with a 1990-era computer setup, and surprisingly robust cabin sound treatment.
  • Safety and maintenance realism: despite the spectacle, Linus emphasizes that every safety and maintenance concern is addressed—with real-world fixes like an emergency power battery to access baggage compartments and aviation-certified components.

Who Is This For?

Essential viewing for gearheads and corporate aviation enthusiasts curious about the math and logistics behind buying, refitting, and operating a private jet, especially those who want the real-world implications of long-term maintenance and depreciation.

Notable Quotes

""The engines were all on a service program from the previous owner that entitles you to completely refurbish them to effectively zero hours brand new once they reach end of life.""
Explains the core financial lever behind the 'zero-dollar' claim.
""With a little bit of uh girl math, $0. I would have been crazy not to buy it.""
Linus describing the cash-flow logic that makes the deal look cost-effective.
""This is one of the few 900Bs on Earth that has a medevac kit.""
Highlights a premium feature that adds value and utility.
""The jet was also in for a 12-year service. And because my uncle's a shrewd negotiator, he put together a purchase contract...""
Outlines the structural due diligence and negotiation backbone of the purchase.
""Influence Air" (pronounced Influence Air)"
Reveals the actual company name behind the jet.

Questions This Video Answers

  • How did Linus justify buying a Falcon 900B with a supposed zero-dollar price tag?
  • What maintenance work goes into a 12-year service on a Falcon 900B and how does it affect resale value?
  • Can a Falcon 900B realistically fly nonstop across North America from Vancouver, and what are its runway requirements?
  • What are the real costs of in-flight Wi‑Fi on a private jet, and is it worth it for business trips?
  • What safety and certification hurdles come with owning and operating a used government-origin aircraft like this Falcon 900B?
Linus Tech TipsInfluence AirFalcon 900Baviation industryjet maintenanceengine refurbishmentMedevac kitaircraft rangeaviation safetyaerospace financing
Full Transcript
So the April Fools wasn't a joke. We actually bought a jet. What started as a meme on WAN show when I discovered that a jet propelled aircraft is not as expensive as I initially thought. I'm serious. Okay. Even Luke was shocked. So I started exploring various options. And my uncle's in aviation and has been for many years on the pilot side, mechanical side, and operations side. Okay. So when I started to explore that one aircraft that I was like this is shockingly affordable, he did a bunch of the due diligence for me and ultimately brought me two sales brochures and he went don't do this. But if you're going to do this, these are the two best ways you can do it. And I picked a do Falcon 900B. I have so many questions. You and everyone. When you say it's not that much, how much is that? So, because of the non-disclosure agreement that we signed in order to purchase it, this whole world is very closed door. I can't actually tell you how much I paid. But what I can tell you is that if you Google it, it's less than that. And the second thing that I can tell you is that with a little bit of uh girl math, $0. I would have been crazy not to buy it. There's no way it's $0. Well, let me put it this way. The engines were all on a service program from the previous owner that entitles you to completely refurbish them to effectively zero hours brand new once they reach end of life. All three of those were done right before we purchased it. It's effectively brand new from an engine standpoint. Each of those refurbishments is worth anywhere from 1.1 to $1.2 million each. And there's three of them. The jet was also in for a 12year service. And because my uncle's a shrewd negotiator, he put together a purchase contract for us where it was guaranteed that once it came out of that 12-ear service, it was at do specification. That 12ear service effectively cost as much or more than the rest of our purchase price. So what you're saying is got the plane for free. So, when I'm done with it, with the condition that it's in, with some of the special features that it has, for example, it is one of the few 900Bs on Earth that has a medevac kit. When it's time to divest of this thing, I should be able to get back what I paid and maybe even the bulk of what I spent operating it. That's pretty cool. See, you didn't know all this. I didn't. And I know that you were very opposed to the jet in the leadup to this. I was very I I was very vocal against it. But the way that the math works, it's a little bit of cash flow tied up, but we're not actually spending any money, which is so cool. Do you want to see it? I want to see the whole thing. Well, you're going to have to wait for the segue to our sponsor, Delta Hub. Delta Hub's Carpio 2.0 wrist rests glide smoothly across your desk and help reduce strain during long shifts or gaming sessions. And they come in an LTT colorway. Grab yours at the link down below. Give me the quick specs. How far can I go and how fast can it go? It's a 1990, so it doesn't have the same kind of range as some of the longer range Falcon 900's that are, you know, newer, but completely out of my price range. But it'll still do about 4,000 nautical miles on a full fill up. So what that means is that from Vancouver, we can go effectively anywhere in the North American continent. And if we were on the east coast of North America, we could hop across the Atlantic in one go without having to like stop and refuel at a little island airport. On the subject of little island airports, one of the coolest things about the Falcon is that it's designed to land and take off from relatively small airports. Got it? So, you only need a landing strip that is somewhere in the neighborhood of around 4,500 ft long, okay, in order to land and take off. Of course, that's all subject to weather conditions, atmospheric pressure, uh, wind, other planes. I've definitely learned a lot, and it's way more complex than you would even begin to think it is. I I I already thought it was pretty complex to be very, I'm like scared to touch this thing. No, you can totally touch it. You can fit so much fuel in here. Did you know that's where the fuel is stored in an aircraft? It's in the wings. Yeah. Cool, right? I guess I don't know where else it would be. That makes sense. People are in there. So, it would be I assumed that jet fuel would be inordinately expensive. It turns out that it's actually really similar to kerosene. And doesn't really cost that much more than regular fuel. How much does it store though? Just the sheer volume of it that you go through. Okay. With that said, I'm starting a family vlog that'll be coming soon. And the first episode is going to be a trip to Cabo where I treated mine and Ivon's families. When we factor in that the fuel coming back from Mexico was half as much as we paid to go down. Oh, wo. It actually cost less than buying like a first class ticket for everyone, which was kind of mind-blowing to me. I mean, first class like like let's be let's bring it down to earth here. Yes. or not, but But it wasn't much more than even business class for everyone. Got it. Which blew my mind. So, the big savings are going to be when we're maybe doing a big company trip. Mhm. Uh I mean, can I show you around? Let's Today's yours. Let's do it. Yeah. Where where we What does this hold? Do you want to walk on the wing of a plane? Can we both be up here? Like, how much weight? Yeah. Okay. Okay. We can both come up here. Okay. Okay. This This feels so wrong. I don't like this at all. Oh my gosh. You like it a little? It's not as slippery as I would have thought. I guess we would come up here for fueling. There's I never really thought about where the gas tank, you know, is on a jet, but if the fuel is in the wing, obviously the fuel port would be on the wing. Does that mean there's another one on the other side? I would assume so. Yeah. You have to fill them both separately and both the same so that the plane will be balanced. In fact, on one of our recent flights, Luke was talking to the pilots while they were flying, and they were explaining to him that because in the grand scheme of things, the plane is so light, in order to optimize its ability to carry passengers and cargo, um even small differences in weight distribution have to be accounted for. So, they were telling Luke that him hanging around with them up in the cabin was actually negatively impacting fuel economy. And if he went all the way to the back and sat in the very back, they would actually have to make adjustments to the throttle in order to alter the pitch of the aircraft just a little bit. I assume that scale is different if you have a bigger jet versus smaller planes, right? Yes. But even then, Got it. These are finely balanced machines. You change one bit of furniture inside and you've got to submit that. You've got to get that certified like potentially recalibrate. You got to account for that. Got it. Okay. Wow. That's kind of cool. Yeah. So, here's the emergency exit from the outside, which I've never seen. I've never looked in the outside of a plane. This feels so weird. I had a lot of people ask me like safety was one of the big questions. And I was like, look, Lance would not allow me and my entire family and Ivonne and her entire family to get on something that's not safe. Sure, we are doing everything as scrappy as we can. We got a great deal on this hanger. Like, seriously, shout out these guys. We'll link to their business in the video description. So, we're doing it scrappy, but we are not compromising at all on safety. Now that we've made a safe landing, I feel it's a good time to talk about this. Wo. Another major maintenance cost center on aircraft is the landing gear. So, rough landings, total landings, and time all contribute to how often this stuff needs to be overhauled and checked. Well, guess what? as part of my girl math zero dollar plane. All three were completely redone months ago as part of a 12-year check. I'm talking the whole plane goes up on struts or on donor landing gear. They completely take apart the whole thing. New seals, new everything, new anti-skid, make sure everything's working perfectly and they throw it back on. So once again, when we go to divevest of this asset, business term for flip this Someone is basically buying a turnkey ready to go 900. Ever looked up inside of the landing gear? No. No. Believe it or not, I've never had the opportunity to do that. It smells exactly like I would expect it to. It smells mechanical. It's also like less complicated and as complicated as I expect. Hey, want to see the first thing that I broke on it? Yeah. The good news is it wasn't this that'd be it was like the second night after it arrived and we hadn't shown the kids or any of my family members yet. So I was like, "Oh, you know, do you want to come see it?" And they were like, "Um, heck yeah." And as part of just kind of poking around at it, I was like, "Okay, I don't know. Do you want to like do you want to like check out the baggage compartment?" Except there was only one small problem. The plane wasn't powered. So, after I opened this, which it turns out to close needs like a powered winch, there was no way to close it. And in the baggage compartment was all the documents and paperwork for the plane. Now, that might not sound like that big of a deal. Let me put it this way. It's about a pallet of banker's boxes this high. And the way my uncle explained it to me is, see that pallet? That's half the value of the plane. You don't have that. There's no history for this bird. Oh, nobody's going to want to touch it with a 10 ft pole cuz if they can't see all the service history or any of the maintenance, any of that stuff. So, they were all in here. So, leaving this open in a shared hanger, not really an option. Had to call my uncle who was doing flight training for this plane. So, you can have all the experience in the world. You still have to get certified for weeks on an individual airframe. He's in the middle class. I'm like, "Hey, so the thing's open." He goes, "Oh my god, how could you?" Okay, so here's what you have to do. We had to hook up like the emergency power battery or something like that in the butt of the plane. It was a whole ordeal. Anyway, the point is, want to go in the cargo hole? It's not the first time a millionaire's asked someone that. Sorry, I should I don't include that joke. That's a billionaire thing. Okay, that doesn't make it in. Uh, go to floatplane.com. Subscribe for the extras. Oh, I mean, he can go on it, right? Yeah, you're good. Maximum weight 220 lb. Go ahead, S. I'll go on it. Yeah, you go in. This wide angle lens makes it look a lot bigger than it is. I can't even stand in here. And I can touch both ends with my arms. So, it's about a 3T by 3T by 3 ft. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for that. So, how do we close this thing now? Well, okay. Does not just have like a fob like a car. Oh, baggage door closing. When we were there that night and I had to close it, it made an awful noise. And I was probably pretty sure I broke it. Hey, Lance, when I opened it when you were in training, did it did I damage it? Yeah, I had to replace the whole No, that's not true. Okay. Okay. So, I didn't I didn't So, did you do you know the nickname for the plane? No. It's the Millennial Falcon. Did we actually tell people what the name of the jet was, though? No, the public one of like Oh, you mean the company? Yeah. Are we allowed to disclose that? Okay. It's called Influence Air. No, it's pronounced Influence Air. Now, I know what you're probably thinking. Hey, kid. She looks nice from the outside, but what you got under the hood of that thing? Is she a Hemi? No, she's not. Whoa. Hold on. I'm going to try and do it. It's stuck. Lance, help me. How can you make something so simple, so complicated? Okay. Whoa. What the hell am I looking at? Okay, so this is our weather radar. Uh, what this is our navigation computer, all of our communications. Um, what you're hearing is a cooling fan. In 1990, the rudimentary compute that was in here was uh a pretty big deal. And while you can retrofit this with more modern computer systems, it's one of those things like um bedazzling your jacket. You're never going to get your investment back on it. Got it. Okay. Can we swap those fans out for Noctu ones, though? No. Uh-huh. All right. And ho Cool. Hey, welcome sir to influence air. Thank you. Oh, wow. Dude, this is dumb in the best way possible. Right. So, are you ready for a bomb? Well, not in a plane. You can't say that. A truth bomb. Oh, would you like to know who the original owner of this plane is? Who is responsible for the goldplated ashtrays and goldplated sinks? Uh, hold on. I'll let you see it first. Okay, there it is. That's so Oh my goodness. 24 karat on that baby. Is it actually? Yeah. Played it. Oh, I thought Oh, I I thought you were kind Okay. I thought you were joking. Is this like Trump's plane? This plane has had a few owners, but originally it was owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, allegedly. So, this is what I've heard. This is what I've heard. May or may not be true, but that is my understanding of the origin of this aircraft. So, they asked for some special modifications to be made as part of its production. Like gold sinks. Like a gold sink. Okay. So, that's uh that's that. Do you want do you want to sit in the cockpit? I was waiting to ask. I just didn't want to interrupt. I'm going into the cockpit. Holy cow. I'm a pilot. Well, not really. I shouldn't claim that. Is that Yeah, definitely not really. So, above you is a bunch of fuses and stuff and also a panel that has caused what was probably the most expensive issue that we've had so far with this plane. See, one of these screws was a little bit too tight and was shorting out. Oh. So that caused the illumination behind all these gauges to go out. So we were able to fly, but only in daytime. We were like replacing power supplies and doing all this stuff until we finally found, well, hold on. What if we back one of these out an eighth of a turn, and that was it. That was what saved it. That's the kind of stuff that from talking to Lance, you run into after a 12-ear check. This thing was taken down to studs would be the building equivalent. Every bolt removed, cleaned, checked for corrosion. So when you put it all back together, you might have some mishaps like that. Couple little things like that. Yeah. Any idea where you'd even begin to use any of this stuff? I'm assuming this is go forward. That is go forward. Yes. Heck yeah. I assume this is a steering wheel. Sure. Or are you say that like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a steering wheel. Up here is all of your relevant flight gauges. This would be our weather radar. Then these screens right in front are the actual flight displays. Also up here is our parking brake and our super high-tech compass. Getting out of here, guys. The next time you see like a 6'5 pilot, you just like I don't know, give them a thumbs up or something because I don't know how they get in and out of these seats. These are the best seats in the house. This was another one of the things that made this a much better deal than it otherwise would have been. Remember I said the deal is that we get it in factory approved condition, right? Sure. Well, part of that was the mechanisms for these chairs. These go forward, backward, side, side, and turn so that you can face the people in these chairs over here. How much you want to guess uh that mechanism under the chair is worth? Don't forget that it is aviation certified which uh uh more than 10,000 5,000 per chair. It was two or three of them were broken. Okay. So I was right about 10 grand. And we found so many little things like That again, you know, girl math. When someone comes and looks at this thing, they're going to look at and go, "Wow, okay. This is like babyed. Like everything is in working condition." Cuz we were like on it. And this fix was still part of that original. You better believe it, bud. They found one seal that was like a fraction of 0.1 mm out of spec. My uncle pulled up the documentation. He said, "No, it's not." You signed to fix it. So, so we got it fixed. Safe. The costs add up for these things, which is why I was so hesitant on it because, you know, there's a saying, right? If it flies, floats, or you're supposed to rent it. Yeah. These are fun. Almost every seat has a little uh table. which is kind of nice. Yeah. Pull out the laptop, get a little bit of work done. Sammy, I think, got like almost a whole float plane video edited on this at one point. I have a question about that. Yes. Wi-Fi. We have Wi-Fi. Okay. How does it work? you take a whole bunch of money. And you give it to someone. And then you gettastic How much is a whole bunch of money? And howasticastic thousands of dollars a month andastic is like kilobytes per second and it's spotty. So aviation Wi-Fi is moving from landbased towers that you just fly over and then get out of range and grab the next one. I see. And like I said, the speeds and everything is spotty to obviously low Earth orbit satellites. Got it. However, whether you're talking Starlink or whether you're talking about Go's Galileo, it has to be certified for your particular airframe. And then to even get the hardware installed is probably going to be in the neighborhood of 200 to $400,000. And then the monthly is not going to be any cheaper. So, we're not going to do that. I am leaning away pretty heavily. What else is there to show you? This is fun. These four seats convert into a bed. Oh, what? Yeah. I'm not going to show it to you because the mechanism involves this table lowering down on this like accordion thing here. That was really loud. Oops. Anyway, this is cool. Oh, wa. There we go. Then you just put in the leaf. And if you give it a little shove. Oh, okay. We've had as many as like half a dozen people playing cards around here. Now, this is interesting. In here you will find high-tech 3 and 12 mm jacks and now in practice in flight um there's a lot of like background noise so it doesn't sound amazing. You're way better off just putting in your headphones. But one of the things that Lance said was, "Hey, while it was in for that 12-ear check, we should look at getting it sound treated cuz that is something that carries some value and is something that makes a big difference to the experience." And then he looked into it. It turns out it already had like state-of-the-art sound treatment. So, it's it's actually quite comfortable to be in. I guess I have one more question. Oh, yeah. If you're talking about like a whole cabin sound treatment, can we wrap the Sorry. I'm I knew the answer. It was just like the number one Reddit comment when people found the jet. I'd love to. It'd be so cool. You'd be adding so much weight. In vinyl that it would affect the fuel economy and also the heating and cooling cycles, the expansion and contraction of the airframe. It's not worth it. Naturally, this is the best place to have a meeting if you were to do it here. There you go. And it's magnetic. Oh. So, this is probably the most comfortable place to sleep. You got the privacy curtain and you've got the ability to boop there. So, if you were going to have a nice little sleep, this would be the place to do it. And then I think there's some kind of like there's like a thing in here. Yeah. Ah, that you can pull out. Oh, wo. And I think this like can go in the middle and then you can have a little mattress thing or something. You can turn this whole thing to like a giant bed. Oh wow. I don't know. I don't care about that. I don't need to have an RG in the back of the plane. That's for the front of the plane. That's for the ones with a B, not an M. Okay. This is something I actually want to fix. So, see how there's a little kind of crack at the top? That's for good reason. Because if you were to open this it would wing here. So, this piece Wh has to slide up and down depending on whether it's open. It doesn't open all the way. And I feel like that's the kind of thing that one of our very smart people like, you know, Justin or Sebastian could probably help fix. It's actually really loud in flight. because this is open to the We've come full circle. Oh, that's the cargo hole baggage. Okay, you can go in there now. It's not that big. Hey, you're you're very right. It's actually quite small. Man, you made this look huge though with your height. Oh my god. Wait, so is this another bathroom back here? Oh, that Okay, that's another toilet Cool. What about second goldplated sink? Why? What is this? What is this Canadian curling boop? Okay, I can explain that, please. We've had some issues with this little plunger here. See, normally it's sealed. And you push it down to drain it. And there's suction. So, on the last flight, I forgot whether it was push or pull, and they had glued the little thing on the top, and they had used a pretty crappy glue. Honestly, I don't think that's entirely on me. So, I forgot if it was push or pull, and I pulled it, and the thing came off. So, now this is So, now there's a label and a boop. Is two bathrooms really needed on a jet this big? Cuz you can have up to um including crew, like 17 people on here. Two people may need to use the pooper at the same time. Got it. Well, if you guys ever need to do a trip again and you just need to, you know, you're at 15, you need 17 or whatever. My wife and I would love to join you. Okay. All right. I'll keep that in mind. But of course, we'd have to have a meeting when we get there, though. Absolutely. And a meeting on the plane if we really need to about important things. Yeah. Sh. Come on. Give us some privacy here. We're trying to have a meeting. Oh, hold on. I got this. Oh, you know what else I've got is the segue to our sponsor, Delta Hub. Whether you're gaming or working, sitting at your computer desk for a long period of time can leave you aching in all sorts of ways. A Delta Hub Carpio 2.0 can be used every day to help support your wrists while you're working. But what if you aren't just punching numbers into spreadsheets? What if you're playing competitive first-person shooters or action RPGs? Well, Delta Hub's Carpio G2.0 comes with a wrist strap so you never lose track of your wrist rest even during faster paced gameplay. It also sports a perforated design to help prevent sweat buildup. Both versions have that signature glide feeling that Carpio is known for. And if you have larger hands, they also come in a larger size. But no matter which model or size you go with, they're going to be small, lightweight, and easy to pack around for working on the go or a late night land with friends. Learn more about both versions and find the right Delta Hub Carpio for you using the link in the video description. If you guys enjoyed this video, why not go check out April Fools? We're running a huge promotion on the store right now. Uh, these are probably all sold out by the time you watch this, but we've got these cool little LTT coin um, medallions, challenge coins. Challenge coins. That's the word I was looking for. And it's a fun video.

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