Mark Cuban's Private Jets: The $40M Online Gulfstream V, His Current G550 N718MC, and the Mavericks' Boeing 757

Mark Cuban purchased a Gulfstream V for over $40 million via email in October 1999, a deal Guinness World Records still lists as the largest single e-commerce transaction ever conducted. The aircraft, serial 549, was a 1998-built Gulfstream V previously operated by Waste Management before Gulfstream sold it to Cuban, who registered it N718MC under his company Radical Ventures LLC, which has held his jets since 2000.

Cuban described the purchase to Business Jet Traveler in 2010: he researched the aircraft on Gulfstream's website, emailed requesting a demo flight, then emailed again saying he wanted to buy it, received banking instructions, and wired the money. Flight International reported the sale in January 2000, valuing it at over $40 million and noting it dwarfed the previous record of $22.9 million paid for a used Gulfstream IV online. That original aircraft was sold in 2005 and is now registered N123FT to a company in Denver; the N718MC tail number was transferred to a 2004 Gulfstream G550, serial 5061, which Radical Ventures registered in January 2006. This G550 is the only aircraft currently listed in the FAA register under Cuban's company, with a maximum range of 6,750 nautical miles, a top speed of Mach 0.885, a ceiling of 51,000 feet, seating for up to 19 passengers, and two Rolls-Royce BR710 C4-11 engines. Gulfstream ceased production of the G550 in 2021.

Cuban bought the Dallas Mavericks from Ross Perot Jr. in 2000 and had a Boeing 757-200, registered N801DM and first delivered to Iberia in August 1993, refitted as the team's dedicated aircraft in an all-first-class configuration. He told Business Jet Traveler he requested room for players taller than seven feet, along with meeting areas, coaching resources, and video and connectivity systems. In December 2023, the NBA approved the sale of the Mavericks' controlling interest to the families of Miriam Adelson and Sivan and Patrick Dumont. In October 2025, Citadel Completions redelivered the aircraft. By 2010, Cuban also co-owned a Boeing 767-200, registered N767MW, built in 1982 and formerly operated by Ansett Australia; he, Martin Woodall, and Robert Hart founded MLW Air in 2007 and refitted it as an all-first-class charter jet with 102 seats in a two-by-two-by-two layout, 60 inches of pitch, and recline to 156 degrees, with Atlas Air signed in 2013 to provide crew, maintenance, and insurance.

Cuban's holdings illustrate how ownership of a particular tail number can outlive the airframe it was first assigned to: N718MC now belongs to a G550 delivered six years after the original Gulfstream V it replaced was sold off and re-registered as N123FT. Corporate flight departments built around a single holding company, as Radical Ventures has been since 2000, tend to cycle aircraft through the same identity rather than retire the tail number along with the jet.

The Mavericks' 757 and the MLW Air 767 show the parallel track that sports and charter ownership can take alongside a personal jet, with specialized refits for team logistics or for all-first-class charter seating handled by outside completions and crewing specialists such as Citadel Completions and Atlas Air. With the G550 now 22 years out of production, Cuban's current flagship sits among the last airframes of a line Gulfstream no longer builds, which keeps its resale and parts dynamics tied to secondary-market supply rather than factory output. The December 2023 Mavericks ownership change and the October 2025 redelivery of the 757 mark the points worth tracking for whether the team's dedicated aircraft arrangement continues unchanged under new ownership.