The Extraordinary Flight of the Moscow Mule

William P Lear was a legendary “Can-Do” American entrepreneur who had made his original fortune in the earty days of radio in the U.S. and was associated with the first successful car radio brand, Motorola. He was a pilot (surviving a crash in his Beech Staggerwing in 1939) and turned his attention to aviation electronics including radios, auto-pilots and automatic direction finders.

In June 1956 he was travelling in Europe marketing his Lear brand compact avionics from his smart white, blue and yellow Cessna 310B N77L (c/n 35117) when he learned of a forthcoming Air Show in Moscow. (The USSR was opening up to an extent after Stalin’s death, the period known as "The Krushchev Thaw "). Legend has it that Lear applied for a visa from the Russians at short notice and was given it in 24 hours (without the U.S. Government’s knowledge).

Bill Lear and his wife Moya landed in East Berlin to pick up the obligatory Russian navigator then flew on to Moscow where he was apparently permitted a half-hour aerial tour over the city. The Soviets were greatly interested in the compact and advanced Lear multichannel radio, A.D.F and autopilot in the Cessna.

There was also an official U.S. delegation including Air Force General Nathan C Twining in a USAF C-118 at the Air Show. When the U.S. Embassy learned of Lear’s sales efforts he was hauled in and reminded of the U.S. embargo on selling equipment with military value to the Soviets.

Lear later commented that the Russian autopilot on their new Tu-104 was like something from the B-17 but he abandoned attempts to sell his equipment directly to the Russians. Since Lear avionics were commercially available in the West, the Soviets no doubt acquired examples to analyse with ease.

N77L was named the "Moscow Mule" celebrating the first private flight into Russia since before Wortd War II. By the late 1950s Lear was more involved with the Learstar (his Lodestar conversion) and N77L was sold in Franoe in 1960 as F-BJOF and believed withdrawn from use in 1974.