Aviation Mogul Gives $60-Million to Expand Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum

Steven Ferencz Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian émigré who built a fortune leasing commercial jet aircraft, has given $60-million to the National Air and Space Museum for its planned Dulles Center in the Washington suburbs.

The gift comes less than a month after the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery announced a bequest of Chinese artifacts valued at up to $60-million from the psychiatrist Paul Singer. Both museums are part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Mr. Udvar-Hazy (pronounced OOD-vahr HAH-zee) is president of International Lease Finance Corporation, in Los Angeles. A pilot himself, Mr. Udvar-Hazy co-founded the company in 1973 and is estimated to be worth $2-billion, according to Forbes magazine’s latest rankings of the 400 wealthiest people in America.

He and his family fled Budapest for Sweden during the Soviet Union’s crackdown on the 1956 Hungarian revolution. The family settled in New York, and in 1968 Mr. Udvar-Hazy earned an engineering degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.

The museum plans to formally announce the gift on Thursday, along with a $130-million capital campaign for the Dulles Center. The drive has raised $90-million to date — including Mr. Udvar-Hazy’s gift — and is expected to conclude in time for the groundbreaking for the annex building in April 2000.

Plans call for the Dulles Center to house more than 180 aircraft and 100 spacecraft on a 177-acre parcel south of the main terminal of Washington Dulles International Airport, in Virginia. The main part of the museum will continue to be located in downtown Washington.

In 1993, Congress appropriated $8-million for an annex. But it became apparent to officials that more money was needed, and the museum has since turned to private sources.