Company name | Learjet |
---|---|
Company logo | |
Fate | Incorporated into Bombardier. |
Successor | Bombardier Aerospace |
Foundation | 1960 |
Defunct | 1986 |
Location | Wichita, Kansas }} |
Learjet is a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. Learjet is now a subsidiary of Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family".
The basic structure of this aircraft was seen by Bill Lear and his team as a good starting point to the development of a business jet, which was originally intended to be called the SAAC-23. The wing with its distinctive tip fuel tanks and landing gear of the first Learjets were little changed from those used by the fighter prototypes. The tooling for building the aircraft was purchased and moved to Wichita, Kansas, in 1962. LearJet was in a temporary office which opened in September 1962 while the plant at Wichita's airport was under construction. On February 7, 1963 assembly of the first Learjet began. The next year, the company was renamed the Lear Jet Corporation. The original Learjet 23 was a six- to eight- seater and first flew on October 7, 1963, with the first production model being delivered in October 1964. Just over a month later, Lear Jet became a publicly-owned corporation. Several derived models followed, with the Model 24 first flying on February 24, 1966 and the Model 25 first flying on August 12, 1966. On September 19 of the same year, the company was renamed Lear Jet Industries Inc.
On April 10, 1967, Bill Lear's stock he held approximately 60% of the company (US$27,000,000) was acquired by the Gates Rubber Company of Denver, Colorado, United States, with Lear remaining on the board until April 2, 1969.
In 1974, the worldwide Learjet fleet had exceeded the one-million-flight-hours mark and in 1975 the company produced its 500th jet. In both instances they were the first manufacturer to do so. By late 1976, the company had increased the number of aircraft being produced each month to 10.
On August 24, 1977, the Learjet 28 made its first flight. The Learjet 28/29 was based on the Learjet 25, and received a completely new wing fitted with winglets, resulting in improved performance and fuel economy. The Learjet 28/29 became the first production jet aircraft to utilize these winglets, which are now a common sight on most business and commercial airplanes. The winglets inspired the name "Longhorn" for the short-lived Learjet 28/29 series and for some of the more successful models that followed.
On April 19, 1979, the prototype for the Model 54/55/56 series had its first flight, and on July 7, 1983 a standard production Model 55 set six new time-to-climb records for its weight class.
In 1984, Gates Learjet announced the start of their Aerospace Division, a high technology endeavor. However, by the end of the year the company had ceased production of its commercial jets in an effort to reduce inventories. This lasted until February 1986, when the company headquarters were transferred to Tucson, Arizona, and production was restarted both in Wichita and Tucson.
On September 10, 1985, the Aerospace Division was awarded a contract to produce parts for the Space Shuttle's main engines. In 1987, Gates Learjet was acquired by Integrated Acquisition and the next year the name was changed to Learjet Corporation. By January 1989 all production had been moved from the Tucson facility back to Wichita.
On June 10, 1988 Dan Hanna, CEO of Hanna Industries, a leading manufacturer of automatic car wash equipment, set the record by taking off and reaching 10,000 feet in 1:13 in a Learjet 23. In 1967, Hanna, then 32, walked into Learjet's Wichita headquarters. He told the receptionist he wanted a Learjet and she asked the nature of his business. ``I wash cars,'' he said. How, she asked, can you afford a Learjet? ``I wash a lot of cars.''
On October 7, 2008, Bombardier celebrated Learjet's historic 45th anniversary of the first flight ever by a Learjet. As a way to commemorate this, Bombardier Business aircraft (a division of Bombardier inc.) decided to launch the Year of Learjet campaign, a year-long celebration to honor Learjet's contribution as a pioneer to the private business jet industry. One of the most memorable event to mark this celebration occurred at the Farnborough Air Show, when Formula One racing driver Lewis Hamilton raced a Learjet and won.
Category:Defunct aircraft manufacturers of the United States Category:Companies based in Wichita, Kansas Category:Defunct companies based in Kansas
ar:ليارجيت da:Learjet de:Learjet es:Learjet fr:Learjet id:Learjet ja:リアジェット pl:Learjet pt:Learjet ru:Learjet fi:Learjet sv:Learjet zh:里爾噴射機This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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