Soar
“Generals are proven only in the heat of battle, not on the parade grounds.” – Andres Gluski, AES CEO
By May of 1987 at the height of the cold war, the Soviet Union had clearly constructed an impenetrable air defense system that surrounded both Moscow and their sovereign borders. Just four years earlier, Korean Airlines Flight 007 deviated from its assigned flight plan while crossing the Kamchatka Peninsula, prompting a Soviet interceptor to shoot the Boeing 747 out of the sky and into the Sea of Japan. All passengers and crew aboard were killed including a sitting member of the United States Congress, Lawrence McDonald. It was a tense time and sentiment was truly ugly.
On the 25th of that same May, a 19-year old newly-minted pilot with just 50 hours in his logbook, defiantly departed West Germany to navigate a long course over water, eventually landing in Helsinki. On May 28, with a startling goal in mind, he filed a flight plan for Stockholm. He headed west, but once out of controlled airspace, he turned east, high above the Gulf of Finland and pointed his nose at Moscow. Although picked up on Latvian radar and intercepted by a Soviet MiG, this kid by the name of Mathias Rust – piloting a rented Cessna 172 – continued on through low cloud cover and landed around 7 pm near Red Square! He then boldly taxied up to St. Basil’s Cathedral where he signed autographs before being arrested.
Two of the most senior members of the Soviet’s military, the ministers of defense and aviation were fired by Mikhail Gorbachev as a result of this humiliating PR disaster. These two ministers had vehemently opposed Gorbachev in his endeavor for improved western relations, and he was thus able to consolidate power, and eventually forge arms reduction treaties with U.S. President Ronald Reagan within a year. Ironically, this 19-year old had carefully prepared a 20-page manifesto on advancing world peace that he carried in his cockpit in hopes of delivering it to the Soviet leader. With apologies to Neil Armstrong – one small flight for a boy, one giant flight for humanity.
As a recreational pilot who learned to fly in a 172, I tremendously enjoy the image of a Soviet supersonic MiG-23 flying alongside a small, under-powered piece of low-tech aluminum that we used to joke about “strapping on” rather than climbing into. It is the ultimate David versus Goliath snapshot where a young man is ultimately victorious over the taunting giant.
So you think you might be under-powered, perhaps a little slow, and knocking up against superior and formidable circumstances? Don’t think you can make a significant difference in the life you currently live? Please consider the teenage boy, armed only with an outlandishly bold plan and steadfast determination, who became instrumental in dismantling an entire empire.
Get out there and fly!