The 41 year old Karajan signed up for flying lessons when he was in Chile in 1949.
He gained his first pilot's licence in Switzerland in 1952. His enthusiasm for flying went back to his boyhood and remained with him throught out
his life. He flew the Boeing 747 flight simulators in both New York and Tokyo and rumour has it that he took the controls of Concorde more than
once when on board as a passenger.
Over the years he owned six aircraft including a Beechcraft twin turboprop and two jets; a Lear and a Dassault Falcon 10.
When, in 1982, he was nearing the upper age limit for flying jets he took up the challenge of learning to fly helicopters rather than return to
propeller driven aircraft.
