Before Steven Udvar-Hazy was out of high school, he started working as an airline consultant. You could do that sort of thing back in the 1960’s, if you knew the industry—which indisputably, he did. Born in Communist Hungary, Steven was obsessed with aviation at an early age, memorizing plane serial numbers and schedules for fun.  In his early 20’s he started his own small airline in California.  But he quickly learned the big money was in aircraft leasing, so at the dawn of the jet age, he started his own leasing company. Today he runs Air Lease Corporation, which has made him a billionaire, and given him the resources to finance the dazzling extension to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum in Virginia - named of course, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.




This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson, with music by Ramtin Arablouei.

Edited by Neva Grant with research help from Sam Paulson.




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In NPR's Black Stories, Black Truths, you'll find a collection of NPR episodes centered on the Black Experience.

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And before we start the show, I recently heard a great business story from the music world.

I was interviewing the rapper Macklemore, and he took me back to a time when record labels were offering him millions of dollars.

And he had to make a choice whether to stay independent with more risk and more reward, or take the upfront money and the security that comes with that.

To hear how it played out, check out my interview with Macklemore on my other podcast, The Great Creators.

Just search for The Great Creators with Guy Raz wherever you listen to podcasts.

And I said, the guy that was making money off this project is the guy in Arizona.

You're losing money on every flight unless it's totally packed.

And that was a turning point mentally in my life.

I was losing money, and he's making money.

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, how Stephen Udvar-Hazy fled communist Hungary as a kid, started 2 companies worth billions, and became a force in global aviation.

You might not know who Stephen Udvar-Hazy is, but there's a good chance you've flown on 1 of his planes.

That's Because around half of all commercial flights happen on planes that are leased, not owned by an airline.

And Stephen's company, Airlease Corporation, does a lot of that leasing.

It owns more planes than Air France and British Airways combined.

A business that's made Stephen Udvar-Hazy a billionaire many times over.

I first heard of him about a decade ago when I went to 1 of the most amazing aviation museums in the world.

It's called the Stephen Udvar-Hazy Center and it's just outside Washington, D.C.

Inside that museum, there are some of the most historic spaceships and aircraft ever flown.

And it was his massive donation that helped finance the museum.

Stephen, who also goes by Steve, was actually born in Hungary, but after the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1956, his parents managed to get him and his brother out.

As a teenager, Steve would go to airports around Los Angeles and watch planes take off and land.

And by the time he got to college at UCLA, he was offering his services as a consultant to airlines.

This was the dawn of the jet age, and Steve soon realized that The gold wasn't in the gold mines, but rather it was in selling the pickaxes and shovels.

And in his case, owning the planes and charging the airlines to use them.

How he made his money is a story of an obsession, an obsession with airplanes that started from an early age.

When I was 6 years old, my father took me to an air show, which was completely mesmerizing for me as a six-year-old.

And there was civilian aircraft, aerobatic aircraft, military aircraft flying and on display.

And in living in a communist, totalitarian, Marxist country, I found that airplanes and aviation was sort of a fascinating dream almost to be able to ultimately get away from this communist Marxist country that I was living in.

Steve, were your parents political in any way?

My father refused to join the Communist Party and that did not enable him to progress in his activities because if you're not a member of the party, you're not part of the elite.

And so therefore we lost all of our possessions.

My parents had to make do with whatever they could earn.

And the Russian army came in and basically retook complete power.

So your family eventually decides to get out, to leave Hungary for good, but it was really hard for Hungarians to get out of the country at the time.

So my father lined up a guide on the Austrian border.

Austria was the only country that was a non-communist country with a border.

I don't remember exactly which station we got off, but my guess it was about 10 to 15 miles from the border.

And then my dad hired this gentleman, I remember had these like big boots to get through the mud.

And he took us, my guess is maybe a couple of kilometers from the border.

And as we kept walking toward the border, it kept snowing harder and harder.

And I remember this guide became more agitated.

He became more and more concerned because there were minefields on both sides of the barbed wire.

And we kept going for maybe another half hour or so.

And I could already see the opening in the barbed wire fence because other people must have gotten out there.

And this gentleman was just increasingly worried.

He just made a decision kind of at the last moment.

He said, look, this is now, we're risking our lives.

So my parents were very scared that something might happen, and we turned back.

At that time, we tried to figure out a way to get out.

And I think the way your family eventually did get out is essentially you got an exit visa to Sweden.

But I mean, it was complicated because I think at the time, the Hungarian government wouldn't allow entire families to leave the country together, right?

So your family, you and your brother and your parents, I guess you got passports under separate names?

We kind of went through separate, in those days there was no, you know, TSA type screening.

We went through, And I remember my mother told me when we got dressed in the morning, she says, wear 3 layers of shirts because we only gonna have 1 bag for each of us.

And she said, look, your name is Ishtar Kutsara, which is my mother's maiden name.

And she explained, look, that's who you are.

And we're going to act like we don't even know each other when we're at the airport.

That must have been so nerve wracking for your parents.

I can't imagine how scared and how nervous.

But actually, I was looking forward to flying.

They were worried about being detained and I was like all excited to fly in this Douglas DC-6 and fly that four-engine propeller plane, you know, anywhere.

How did the Hungarian authorities not catch you?

were incompetent and probably half drunk and they were more interested in the soccer game, you know, that was gonna take place later that day.

And they just, you know, I mean, we were lucky.

I mean, the Hungarians would never have allowed an entire family to leave.

Did you, do you remember being at the airport, just ignoring your dad and your brother?

Like not, pretend like you didn't know them?

On the way to the airport, my mom kept telling me, do not acknowledge your brother, do not acknowledge your dad, just totally ignore them.

Yeah, and when they get in line, don't even get close to them.

I'm just like, because you guys could have been, I mean, your parents could have been arrested.

Yeah, and maybe, you know, it could have been 10 years in prison or work camp or whatever.

But look, this is the quest for freedom that millions of people experienced coming out of Eastern Europe.

And I wish more young people today in America and in Europe would understand that the socialism, communism, Marxism was not a friendly, you know, desirable place to grow up as a child.

So that was really a turning moment when that plane took off and headed north toward Denmark.

And so that was really a very emotional experience for me as a 12 and a half year old.

So you you stay in Stockholm and Sweden for for a few months.

your family's eventually able to make its way to the US, because I guess you're like your dad had a sister in New York and so you landed there?

Yes, but when we landed at that time, it was called Idlewild Airport, which is now John F.

And they were friendly, the officials stamped your paperwork, everything else, and my aunt was waiting for us.

She had a nice Buick car, which I'd never seen before.

And then once we get into Manhattan, I see all kinds of people that look completely different than where I grew up.

There was all kinds of interesting kaleidoscope of people that I'd never seen before as a 12-year-old.

So, all right, so your family kind of settles in Manhattan where I guess you initially lived on your mom's salary.

She was working as a seamstress from what I understand.

And I guess I guess you assimilated pretty fast into American culture.

I and from what I understand, you already arrived to the US with this fascination with airplanes, which which a lot of kids have, you know, at 10, 11, 12 years old, but yours was a little bit more intense.

Like I read that you used to go just walk, just go to LaGuardia, like take the subway out there and just watch the planes take off and land and sometimes even like get into the control tower?

Yes, in the afternoon I would work at my aunt's office and then I would tell my parents that I'm going to the library to study.

And instead of going to the library or going to my aunt's office, I would take the subway out to Queens and the station was, I don't know, about a mile away from LaGuardia.

And at that time there was no security and I would talk to the ticket agents, I talked to the station managers, I'd go to the American Airlines hangar which was just left of the terminal.

A couple of times I talked my way into the control tower saying that I was doing a term paper for school, for science class.

And I had a little notebook where I would write in what airline was flying what kind of plane and where it was going, almost like a little memo of airport activity.

And I would be out there for like 2 or 3 hours.

Then I would go back home and I would never tell anyone I went to the airport.

And I was totally obsessed with the different airlines and airplanes.

And then I would go to the library and dig into it some more.

Like if I saw a certain kind of airplane, I would go to the library and try to get more information on it.

So this became almost like an obsession, or a passionate obsession, let's call it.

So when I started going to school in America, there was this void in my life because I wasn't into baseball or basketball or American football, whereas a lot of my friends were doing that.

So the aviation almost filled that vacuum.

Did you, and this was obviously the pre-jet age, right?

These are propeller planes and some of them beautiful planes, Constellations and Corvairs.

And did you, I mean, as a kid, right, looking at going to LaGuardia and watching those planes take off and land, did you dream of being a pilot?

And sometimes I would dream that I'm flying a DC-7 and she's waiting for me at the airport somewhere up in New England.

And I'm actually this pilot of this DC-7 and I would taxi in in front of the terminal with the window open, the cockpit window open and my arm hanging out, and this young lady would be waiting for me.

This is the kind of stuff I would dream about, which is totally oddball and different, but it was all part of this fascination about aviation.

So today, if you're sort of a 15-year-old kid really obsessed with airplanes and would go to the airport and check it out, like you, you know, it'd be cool, but you might be a little bit odd or, you know, because most kids that age wouldn't do that.

But maybe at this time in the mid 60s, like air travel was still so new.

And so your obsession, like when your parents are like, oh, you know, Steve is, he's really into, he goes to the airport and just like writes down serial numbers.

People weren't like, oh, that's a little odd.

My dad sort of felt, look, he needs to pursue whatever his passion is.

And my mother said, why can't you be like a normal person and become a doctor or an engineer?

And of course, I didn't tell my parents everything I was doing vis-a-vis aviation, because they felt that was taking away from my academics.

So your family eventually moves to California, to LA.

I think your brother attended UCLA there.

So when you, I mean, you continued this in high school, like you would go to LAX or you'd go to Santa Monica airport?

In those days, you know, we have no electronic access to schedule.

So I would go to all the terminals at LAX, collect all the timetables.

I would go to the maintenance area where there was Continental Airlines and Flying Tiger on the west end of LAX.

And I would talk my way in there, again, saying I'm doing a term paper or I'm doing something for school.

So I was still in high school and there was a small airline based in San Francisco called Pacific Airlines.

They were flying these 40 seat small planes.

So I became obsessed with this airline because I, in my 16 year old mind, I thought I could run this airline better than the guys that were running it.

So I analyzed their schedule till I'm blue in the face And they had about 20 airplanes.

And I said, with 15 airplanes, I could put together a better schedule than what their schedule was.

So I actually put together almost like a spreadsheet of a new schedule saying, you know, this flight leaves San Diego at

Then it goes here, Bakersfield or Fresno.

The turnaround times were shorter, and I sent it to this president of the airline called Harry White in San Francisco at the airport.

And I said, look, I'm an airline consultant.

Yeah, and here's the schedule I think is optimized.

And I think the airline would be Much better operating this type of a schedule than what you have now the status quo And he wrote me back a very nice letter saying we don't need consultants.

Thank you, but we're not really interested in pursuing this Okay, so it was a real slam because I thought I put all this work in, dozens of hours, and this guy thinks I'm an idiot.

So about 3 or 4 months later, I'm at LAX collecting schedules.

Like you would just go and pick them up like a brochure.

They were like maybe 4 inches by 8 inches.

Anyway, I go to LAX 3 or 4 months later, I don't know exactly when, I pick up their schedule, I didn't pay any attention to it, I get home, didn't do anything.

That weekend, I look at the stupid schedule, and you won't believe it, 80% of the schedule is what I sent them.

And I mean, it was like arrive in Redding, California at

That's not something any crazy person would know.

It was an exact copy, not a hundred percent, but at least 80% of my schedule was adopted by the airline.

So That to me was a turning experience, even though there was no monetary benefit, I realized that maybe I could add some value to this industry, that I thought aviation was a growth industry, that I felt that aviation with the jet age, Remember in October, 1958, Pan Am had its first flight on a 707 from New York to London.

And then about half a year later, the Douglas DC-8 took the skies with, I think it was Delta United National with the first 3 airlines.

Just about this time that I'm translating my passion to some kind of a inquisition into the knowledge of airlines, that's when the jet age began.

I have to say, just as an aside, your memory for details is quite remarkable.

I've interviewed thousands and thousands of people and you have a very, very good memory of these details.

Yeah, my wife says I'm crazy that I remember the serial numbers of airplanes we bought in

And I say to her, well, each plane is like a child to me.

You followed your brother to UCLA for college.

And I think, I mean, you were there, like you had a very different experience, but you were at UCLA like around the same time as like Jim Morrison and the guys from the doors, like who had a completely different experience and took something different out of it.

But you were very single-minded, like you were there to get your degree and figure out what you were going to do in airlines.

Remember I told you a story about Pacific Airlines and the schedule?

I had a similar sort of vision about an airline in Ireland called Aer Lingus.

And it wasn't about their schedule, it was the hodgepodge fleet that they had of different airplanes.

And I thought I could come up with a streamlined fleet.

And I wrote to them and sent them telegrams and stuff like that.

Writing to them saying, hey, I think you've too many different kinds of airplanes, aircraft.

And this information was not easily, like there's no internet, like you would have to go to the library to find out what planes Aer Lingus have flew?

And get their schedule and then do the research and then send them telegrams without revealing how old I am or anything else.

It was called Airlines Systems Research Consultants.

And I had letterhead made up and everything else.

And I took out 1 of those offices, which is like a PO box on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

And so this looked like a legitimate consulting firm.

So Aer Lingus, I sent them an outline of what I was thinking, and they said, oh, this is actually very interesting.

What were you thinking, that they should have fewer aircraft types?

Yeah, they had Fokker F-27s, they had 3 DC-4 Carvairs that were converted to be able to fly cars across the Irish Channel.

It was a hodgepodge fleet of airplanes, which I thought was crazy and they were losing a lot of money.

They said, okay, this sounds really creative.

And they sent me a ticket and it said, come over.

Wait, based on this telegram, they sent, cause they're thinking, oh, this is a smart consultant from the United States.

They send you a flight, they send you a ticket to go to Dublin to.

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Air Lease Corporation: Steven Udvar-Hazy