A gift from Khrushchev?

[Tu.114]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

there are rumours around that Comr. Khrushchev presented President Eisenhower with an Antonov An-10 airliner in 1959 (carrying assorted other presents as well). Some trawling of the web only brought forth a newspaper page: The Miami News - Google News Archive Search (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19600112&id=ySYzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=weoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1213,3484778) .

Does anybody know what happened to this present - did Pres. Eisenhower ever set foot onboard, was there a date with the cutters torch, was the aircraft sent back or is it still somewhere around?

[con-pilot]

Well perhaps I misread the article, but I did not see where the aircraft was a present, from what I read the aircraft was just carrying the presents.

But, it would be rather funny if the aircraft and crew are still sitting somewhere, while the State Department is trying to figure out what to do with them. :p

[Tu.114]

May well be that the rumour is unfounded - the only other site it was mentioned on is the German wikipedia ( de.wikipedia.org/wiki/An-10 ). But You are right, if it was a present, it must have caused some diplomatic brew-ha-ha - rejecting it and sending it back is as bad an option as having a Soviet-built aircraft become Air Force One by having the President travel on it - during the hotter years of the Cold War on top of this.