This article was published on January 23, 2012

This Virgin America jet has a name inspired by Steve Jobs


This Virgin America jet has a name inspired by Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has left an impression on all of us since he stepped down as CEO at Apple, and then passed away last year. So much so, that MacRumors is reporting that Virgin America has given a name to one of its jets that is inspired by Jobs.

With the tail number N845VA, this Airbus A320 first took flight last October, and has a famous quote from Steve Jobs on the side of the jet.

It says:

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

This of course was a quote from the Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford in 2005. Towards the end of the speech, Jobs said:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

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Here is the plane in all of its glory, it handles a multitude of Virgin America’s most popular routes, including SFO to JFK:

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