Khrushchev Visit "‘When Time Ripe”

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28963, 3 August 1959, Page 11

Khrushchev Visit "‘When Time Ripe”

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) MOSCOW, August 1. The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Khrushchev, inspected an American Boeing 707 jetliner today and said he would like to fly to the United States in “this or some other one,” the American Associated Press reported.

Mr Khrushchev said he would like to make such a trip “when the time is ripe—in good time.’’ He made the comments to American reporters as he inspected two American jetliners at Moscow Airport. One of the planes Mr Khrushchev saw today brought Mr Nixon to Moscow. In jovial mood, Mr Khrushchev pronounced the American planes “very good.’’ But said that the military version of the Soviet TU-114 could fiy from New York to Moscow and back to New York without stopping, American Associated Press said. Mr Khrushchev was escorted over the planes by the United States Ambassador, Mr Llewellyn Thompson, after the Soviet leader returned suddenly from a visit to the Ukraine. As American jazz music was piped through the cabin, Mr Khrushchev sat with Mr Thompson on the arm of a seat and proposed this toast: “To the aircraft designers of America and all the scientists who build these

wonderful planes and the pilots so skilful in bringing them to Moscow.” Holding aloft a glass of American whisky, he also toasted the Government of the United States. President Eisenhower, Mr Nixon and Mr Thompson. Mr Thompson answered the toasts by noting that the United States Air Force airliner Mr Khrushchev was inspecting was a conversion of a military plane. “I’d like to pri»pose a toast to the time when all military planes are converted to civilian use,” Mr Thompson said. “Very good,” Mr Khrushchev replied. With a roar of laughter, Mr Khrushchev jokingly suggested that the Soviet plane designer, Mr A. N. Tupolev, who inspected the planes with him, look carefully to see what ideas he could steal, the American Associated Press said. “Andrei Nikolaevich,” Mr Khrushchev shouted to Tupolev, who was seated in one of the seats across the aisle, “you must try to steal something out of this plane.” Looking over the plane with Mr Khrushchev were his 24-year-old son, Sergei,, a fair, bespectacled young man who was at least four inches taller than his father.

Mr Khrushchev’s married daughter, Julia Tocha, of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, was also in the group, together with the deputy commander of the Soviet Air Force, Marshal Sergei Rudenko. As he sat munching salted peanuts, Mr Khrushchev said he wanted to tell a little secret about a new Soviet military plane. He said he had inspected a factory turning them out in Kiev. He did not further identify it except to say it was designed by “Antonov,” and was faster than the Soviet IL-18.

“I will tell you a little secret —that plane can be used for landing paratroops,” he remarked with a chuckle.

The aircraft, demonstrated to him yesterday, could carry a self-propelled gun and even a light tank, he reported. “In general, we are building very few bombers now," Mr Khrushchev said. The American Associated Press said his comments about a possible trip to the ’ United States came when a reporter asked if he would like to fly to the United States non-stop in the plane he was inspecting at that moment. ~ “This one or another one, he replied. “When?” asked the reporter.

“When the time is ripe—in good time,” he said.