Flight to Russia

For nearly six months, peak-nosed Airman William P. (for Powell) Lear, 54, a restless, uninhibited manufacturer-inventor (Lear, Inc.), has been flying his Cessna 310 plane around Europe on a businessman's crusade. He wanted to show Europeans how simple and safe it was to fly their own planes, especially with the Lear automatic pilot, the Lear automatic direction finder and the Lear omnirange navigational system. Fortnight ago, in Hamburg, Bill Lear got an even better idea. Why not be the first postwar private flyer to go to Moscow and show off U.S. equipment?

Though no private U.S. pilot had ever flown across Red-occupied Germany to Berlin, Lear took off and soon landed at Berlin's Tempelhof airport. Then he bustled over to East Berlin to see the Soviets about permission to fly to Moscow.

"Until Tomorrow." At first, the Reds were incredulous, amusedly asked him how long he could wait for a visa. "Until tomorrow," said Lear. When the Reds discovered who he was -and what he made-things started picking up speed. In short order, his visa was ready. The only condition was that he take along a Red navigator, a requirement also made of U.S. Air Force Chief General Nathan F. Twining, to navigate the route to Moscow. Soon, Bill Lear and his wife were off, four hours later were circling Moscow.

Over the Moscow airport, Lear radioed for permission to make a sightseeing flight, spent the next 30 minutes viewing Moscow from the air as few Americans ever had before. When he landed, he was told that he and his wife were guests of the Soviet Union. Next morning Bill Lear took a Red trade delegation out to see his twin-engined plane. Said Lear: "They seemed avidly interested."

No Secrets. Then came the explosion. The U.S. embassy in Moscow ordered Lear to explain what he was doing there, said that all his automatic flight equipment was banned under NATO embargo from sale to the Reds.

Lear had done nothing that any other private U.S. citizen could not do, since the U.S. no longer requires specific State Department permission to visit Russia. As for Lear's Cessna, it carried nothing on the secret list. Though Lear's equipment was indeed banned from direct sale to Russia or its satellites, it can be bought in the U.S. and in many European countries.

Said Airman Lear: "Of course the plane is on the embargo list. All aviation equipment is on the NATO embargo list, including General Twining's DC-6." From what he had seen of Red equipment, added Lear, the Russians could probably use some of his flight aids. On their prize Tu-104 jet transport, for example, the auto pilot was "right out of our old B17. You can buy one in any junk market for six dollars." But, said Lear, he was not planning to sell "a single bolt or screw" to the Russians.

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