Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead said...

Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead said three Eastern European countries have begun talks with the United States about buying U.S. commercial jets for their national airlines. Whitehead, talking to reporters after returning from a four-nation, two-week tour of Eastern Europe, said the sale of Boeing or McDonnell Douglas jets “would be significant--psychologically and economically.” Whitehead, who visited Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Czechoslovakia, did not identify the countries that have expressed an interest in the American planes, but they are believed to be Bulgaria, Poland and Hungary. All Eastern European countries have used Soviet or Western European jets in their national air fleets so far, but they complain that the Soviet-built planes are hard to maintain and that spare parts are not available.