On June 5, 1989, 11-year-old Anthony Aliengena followed by two chase planes carrying his family, journalists and his Soviet pen pal, Roman Tcheremnykh, took off John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California in a Cessna 210 Centurion,[1][2] and had successfully returned home nearly seven weeks and 21,567 miles after.
The project started when, after his record-setting flight across the United States in March 1988, Tony wrote Gorbachev to ask if he could fly to the Soviet Union.
Gennady Alferenko, chairman of the Foundation for Social Inventions, said the American boy represented freedom to Soviet children: "He is teaching our youngsters that the entire planet is our home.
The significance of the friendship mission was particularly emphasized by the Scandinavian governments, which waived the customary rigorous clearance through customs for Tony and his entourage of 11 persons.
In Norway and Sweden, government officials checked no passports and required only that Tony's father, Gary, and Dr. Lance Allyn, a Hanford, California surgeon who was piloting one of the chase planes, sign declarations that they were not bringing in anything illegal.