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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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Air Lease Corporation: Steven Udvar-Hazy

How I Built This with Guy Raz