Mikhail Gorbachev's Flying Circus

By Sidney Urquhart

The offer from the Soviet barnstormers is for the well heeled, not the fainthearted. For a mere $10,000, the American air-show buff can now buy a few minutes of thrills as a passenger in a MiG-29 Fulcrum, the U.S.S.R.'s hottest jet fighter. A few intrepid customers have signed up for rides ranging from a gentle swing around the airfield to a serious workout at 1,500 m.p.h. The thrills start this weekend at Massachusetts' Westfield-Barnes airport and then continue at shows in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Texas, Kansas and California.

With reporting by Andrea Sachs