You know Larry Page? Well, although he is Google’s co-founder, he also had a secret.

You see, about three years ago Silicon Valley had an infatuation with a startup called Zee.Aero.

It was a company that had set up shop right next to Google’s headquarters in California – which was interesting in itself because Google holds tight control over all the land that surrounds it.

Although there was no solid connection between the two, a reporter then released a patent showing a flying car. Literally, the future.

But the startup denied that it was in any way affiliated with Google, and then it stopped speaking to the media all together. Sounds like a sci-fi movie, hey? Bloomberg reveals some stuff:

Employees say they were even given wallet-size cards with instructions on how to deflect questions from reporters. After that, the only information that trickled out came from amateur pilots, who occasionally posted pictures of a strange-looking plane taking off from a nearby airport.

Now it has been revealed that the startup actually belongs to Page. He has personally funded the startup since its launch in 2010, but has demanded that his involvement stay hidden. Here’s what Bloomberg knows about the company:

The Zee.Aero headquarters, located at 2700 Broderick Way, is a 30,000-square-foot, two-story white building with an ugly, blocky design and an industrial feel.

Page initially restricted the Zee.Aero crew to the first floor, retaining the second floor for a man cave worthy of a multibillionaire: bedroom, bathroom, expensive paintings, a treadmill-like climbing wall, and one of SpaceX’s first rocket engines—a gift from his pal Musk.

As part of the secrecy, Zee.Aero employees didn’t refer to Page by name; he was known as GUS, the guy upstairs. Soon enough, they needed the upstairs space, too, and engineers looked on in awe as GUS’s paintings, exercise gear, and rocket engine were hauled away.

Zee.Aero now employs close to 150 people. Its operations have expanded to an airport hangar in Hollister, about a 70-minute drive south from Mountain View, where a pair of prototype aircraft takes regular test flights.

The company also has a manufacturing facility on NASA’s Ames Research Center campus at the edge of Mountain View.

Page has spent more than $100 million on Zee.Aero, say two of the people familiar with the company, and he’s not done yet.

Last year a second Page-backed flying-car startup, Kitty Hawk, began operations and registered its headquarters to a two-story office building on the end of a tree-lined cul-de-sac about a half-mile away from Zee’s offices. Kitty Hawk’s staffers, sequestered from the Zee.Aero team, are working on a competing design.

Its president, according to 2015 business filings, was Sebastian Thrun, th­e godfather of Google’s self-driving car program and the founder of research division Google X. Page and Google declined to speak about Zee.Aero or Kitty Hawk, as did Thrun.

How cool does the future sound?

Bloomberg has done a great report on the future and history of flying cars, their designs and even a webpage that makes you feel like you’re reading secret documents.

Check the rest of the information HERE and enjoy, you geek, you.

[source: bloomberg]