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".

History[link]

The Learjet started life as an abortive Swiss ground-attack fighter aircraft, the FFA P-16. Development started in 1952 and prototypes were ordered the next year. The first prototypes flew in 1955 and construction and testing continued until 1958 when an order for 100 was placed. This was reversed soon after due to a crash of the third prototype. Two additional prototypes were finished, the last in 1960, but the project was ended at this point.

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.

About this time it was hoped to make the Learjet the first supersonic business jet, with the ability to accelerate vertically upward. The Learjet made several visits to the Ag Aviation Academy at Reno/Stead Airport, with the chief pilot holding informal talks to students

Merger with Gates Aviation[link]

In 1969, the company was merged with Gates Aviation and the company name was changed to Gates Learjet Corporation. In 1971, the first Model 25 powered by a Garrett TFE731-2 turbofan engine was flown. This aircraft later became the successful Learjet 35. That year, the company was awarded the President's "E" Award for promoting export sales.

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.

Bombardier[link]

In 1990, Bombardier Aerospace purchased the Learjet Corporation. The aircraft were then marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family". On October 10, 1990, the Learjet 60 mid-sized aircraft flew its first flight, followed on October 7, 1995 by the Learjet 45. In October 2007 Bombardier Learjet launched a brand new aircraft program, the Learjet 85. It was the first FAR Part-25 all-composite business aircraft.

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.^[1]

Records[link]

A Learjet held the previous speed record for the journey from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. at 4 hrs 12 mins, which was succeeded by the Lockheed SR-71 at 64 mins.^[2]

Aircraft[link]

Learjet 45 of Gama Aviation

• Learjet 23 (Lear Jet)
• Learjet 24 (Lear Jet & Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 25 (Lear Jet & Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 28 (Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 29 (Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 31 (Lear Jet & Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 35 (Learjet, Gates Learjet & Shin Meiwa). Known as the C-21 in U.S. Air Force service.
• Learjet 36 (Gates Learjet). Basically a Learjet 35 with increased range. This increase is possible through the removal of two seats for an extra fuel tank.
• Learjet 40 (Learjet)
• Learjet 45 (Learjet)
• Learjet 55 (Gates Learjet)
• Learjet 60 (Learjet)
• Learjet 85 (Learjet)

See also[link]

• Canadair
• de Havilland Canada
• LearAvia Lear Fan
• LearStar 600
• Short Brothers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bombardier Learjet website
• Learjet timeline from Wings over Kansas
• Year of Learjet website
• Learjet 85 website

Bill Lear
Born	(1902-06-26)June 26, 1902 Hannibal, Missouri
Died	May 14, 1978(1978-05-14) (aged 75) Reno, Nevada
Cause of death	Leukemia
Nationality	American
Occupation	Engineer, Inventor
Employer	Learjet
Known for	car radio, Lear Jet
Spouse	Ethel Peterson Lear Madeline Murphy Lear Margret Radell Moya Olsen Lear
Children	Mary Louise, William, Jr., Patti, John, Shanda, David, and Tina

William (Bill) Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets. He also invented the first car radio and developed the 8-track cartridge, an audio tape system which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

Early life[link]

Lear was born on June 26, 1902 in Hannibal, Missouri to Ruben Marion Lear and Gertrude Elizabeth Powell Lear. Ruben was a man who had "success in inverse proportion to effort", so Lear's mother left him; mother and son stayed with aunt Gussie Bornhouser in Dubuque, Iowa. Later Otto Kirmse took them in and was a step-father to Bill Lear. The family relocated to Chicago where Lear attended Kershaw Grammar School. On Sundays, young Lear attended the Moody Bible Institute. "From listening to Paul Rader, of the Moody Tabernacle, he learned grammar and how to speak. He found out how to meet people, how to shake hands, and what to say when he did so... He learned about hypocrisy, too" and ceased any further church affiliation.^[2]

Lear entered Englewood High School but was dismissed for showing up teachers. He worked for the Multigraph Company, running and repairing rotary typesetting and printing machines. One summer he spent with his father in Tulsa, re-building a Model-T car. Too independent to move back with his mother in Chicago, Lear struck out cross country. He joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Later after discharge, and with a young family, "he decided to complete his high school education. Starting a radio repair shop in his home, which he could tend nights, Lear enrolled at Tulsa Central High School, taking eight solids, heavy on the math. He was at the point of wrapping up the entire four-year curriculum in one when he [was again dismissed for showing up teachers]."^[3]

Radio engineer[link]

Lear was self-taught: "He had read widely on wireless, including the works of Nicola Tesla, the Serbian wizard. He had even built a radio set, based on a twenty-five-cent Galena crystal which he sent away for, and he had learned the Morse code, the fun ending with the ban on radio during World War I."^[4] One of his first ventures was with Lawrence Sorenson, selling loose radio couplers. Lear had been an "instructor in wireless" in the US Navy so he confidently identified himself as a radio engineer to Clifford Reid in Quincy, Illinois. Reid was selling auto supplies and hired Lear to expand into radio. With contractor Julius Bergen, he founded Quincy Radio Labs and built speaker boxes for radios. Lear also helped develop WLAL which evolved into the powerful station KVOO.

Lear’s talents as engineer showed in 1924 when he moved to Chicago and built a B-battery eliminator for the Universal Battery Company with R. D. Morey. Then he met Waldorf Astoria Smith of the Carter Radio Company who helped him with radio theory including Ohm's law. Tom Fletcher of the QRS Company was so impressed by Lear’s radio set designed around a QRS rectifier tube that he hired him, offering 60% more pay than Universal Battery. Bill Grunow of the Grigsby-Grunow-Hinds Company topped that offer when Lear fixed the problem with 60,000 B-battery eliminators that they had manufactured. Lear also came up with an invention in 1924 when power inverters installed at Stevens Hotel failed to perform for the Radio Manufacturers’ Association. Lear built audio amplifiers and cases for the Magnavox speakers then coming out; the "Majestic dynamic speakers" that he produced with Grunow were very popular. With Ernie Tyrman he built and sold radio sets using patented methods for which they had not been licensed. Anxious over prosecution for infraction, they both acquired ulcers. Tyrman died after surgery; Lear changed his diet.

Lear Radio Laboratories was the source of an early step to miniaturization in electronics. Tuning coils in the radio frequency stage of a set were rather large and Lear knew how to reduce their size by using Litz wire. Wire braided from many fine strands has a large surface area giving it high conductivity at radio frequency. Lear borrowed $5,000 from his friend Algot Olson to make machines to wrap the strands, braid the wire, and wind the coils. The industry was set up in the basement of his mother’s old house on 65th street, and done with assistance of Don Mitchell, a railroad electrician. Lear called the company, Radio Coil and Wire Corporation. They took an order of 50,000 coils from Eugene F. McDonald of Zenith Electronics when they demonstrated them. These small coils were one-quarter the size of coils with solid wire.^[5]

Lear traded his Radio Coil business for a third interest in Paul Galvin's Galvin Manufacturing Company. At that time the radio had not yet been developed for use in automobiles, but Lear and Howard Gates of Zenith made a pair; Lear designed the circuit and layout, Gates did the metal work and Lear assembled them. When Lear presented Galvin with the prototype, it was first dismissed but later taken up and a 200 unit production run. Galvin and Lear mulled over names for the product on a cross-country trip and came up with "Motorola". The product was such a success that Galvin changed the name of the company to Motorola.^[1][6]

Music cartridges[link]

Lear developed the Lear Jet Stereo 8 music cartridge in 1964, better-known as the "8-track". This was an eight track variation of the four track Muntz Stereo-Pak tape cartridge, marketed by Earl "Madman" Muntz in California in 1962, itself a version of a 3-track system, Fidelipac. The 8-track was a commercial success that had good audio quality and was easily adapted to vehicle and home use.^[7] It was a solution to the need for a convenient music source for his new business jets. The consumer version of players for these tapes first appeared in September 1965 in 1966 model Ford automobiles with RCA and Lear offering the first pre-recorded Stereo 8 Music Cartridges.

Transportation[link]

In 1968, Lear also started work on a closed circuit steam turbine to power cars and buses, and built a transit bus and converted a Chevrolet Monte Carlo sedan to use this turbine system. It used a proprietary working fluid dubbed "Learium", possibly a chlorofluorocarbon similar to DuPont Freon.^[8]

In 1969, Lear and his friend Art Linkletter, offered their support for Craig Breedlove's supersonic car project.

Learjet 25, an example of the Lear executive jets that still bear his name

Aviation[link]

In 1931 Lear bought his first aircraft, a Fleet biplane for $2,500 from a woman in Dearborn, Michigan. His instructor was F.L. Yeomans. The challenges of navigation aloft led Lear into development of radio direction finders and avionics products.

Lear founded Lear Developments, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics.^[9] Lear developed radio direction finders, autopilots, and the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. Lear also developed and marketed a line of panel-mounted radios for general aviation. His "LearAvian" series of portable radios, which incorporated radio direction finder circuits as well as broadcast band coverage, were especially popular.

Lear changed the name of Lear Developments to Lear Incorporated and in 1949 opened a manufacturing facility in Santa Monica, California.

In 1960, Lear moved to Switzerland and founded the Swiss American Aviation Company. In 1962 he sold Lear Incorporated to the Siegler Corporation after having failed to persuade its board to go into the aircraft manufacturing business. That company thereafter was known as Lear Siegler. Bill Lear next moved to Wichita, Kansas to manufacture the Lear Jet. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the Learjet 23, the first mass produced business jet.

The successful Canadair Regional Jet is largely based on Lear's design for the LearStar 600, which Canadair bought and turned into the Canadair CL-600 Challenger business jet. Lear Jet was acquired in 1990 by Bombardier Aerospace, by that time the parent company of Canadair.

In the early 1970s, Lear backed the Foxjet ST600 with its first order. The Very Light Jet project failed, but the VLJ concept became popular again 30 years later.^[10]

One of Lear's most innovative projects was his last — a revolutionary aircraft called the LearAvia Lear Fan 2100, a seven-passenger aircraft whose single pusher propeller was powered by two turbine engines. The fuselage of this aircraft was made of lightweight composite materials, instead of the more typical aluminum alloys. Though many years in development, the Lear Fan was ultimately never completed. At the time of his death he begged his wife, Moya, to finish it; with the help of investors, she attempted to do so, but the aircraft failed to obtain FAA certification and never made it into production.

Personal life[link]

Lear had a total of seven children, born from 1925 to 1954. With his first wife, Ethel Peterson Lear, Mary Louise was born January 1925. He married his second wife Madeline Murphy in October 1926. Their son, Bill Lear, Jr., was born on May 24, 1928. William Lear, Jr. died December 14, 2009, age 81, in Daytona Beach, Florida. ^[11]

Lear's third marriage to Margret Radell was childless. In 1941, Lear married his fourth wife Moya Marie Olsen, daughter of Vaudeville comedian John "Ole" Olsen.^[12] Bill and Moya Lear would have four children together: John Olsen Lear was born in 1942, Shanda in 1944, David in 1948 and Tina in 1954. ^[13]Lear's son John is an accomplished pilot and ufologist, noted in the latter field for promoting a variety of conspiracy theories which were based, he claimed, on information obtained from military contacts.^[14]

Although Lear had a reputation of being difficult,^[15] he reportedly had a good sense of humor, as evidenced by naming his second daughter Shanda (~"chandelier").

The 75-year-old Lear died of leukemia in Reno, Nevada on May 14, 1978. His remains were cremated and scattered at sea.

Tributes and honors[link]

In 1944 Harry Bruno included William P. Lear in a list of 87 "all-time greats in American aviation... [who] gambled their necks, their brains and their money — that aviation might grow."^[16]

• 1954, member Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans
• 1972, Elliott Cresson Medal
• 1974, Tony Jannus Award for his distinguished contributions to aviation.
• 1978, National Aviation Hall of Fame^[17]
• 2003, Hannibal Municipal Airport was renamed the Hannibal Regional Airport, William P. Lear Field in his honor.

Learisms[link]

• On aerodynamics: "If it looks good, it will fly good."
• On management: "If you put up half of the money, you get to make half of the decisions."
• On electronics: "There's only one thing worse than an intermittent, that's an intermittent intermittent."
• On weight reduction in the Learjet: "I'd sell my grandmother to save one pound."

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

External links[link]

Biography portal

• MIT Inventor of the Week
• William Powell Lear, Sr. at the National Aviation Hall of Fame
• Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans William Powell Lear
• Bill Lear at Find a Grave