Bill Lear
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William (Bill) Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. Lear is best known for founding Lear Jet Inc. the makers of Lear Jets, a popular brand of business jets. He also developed the 8-track cartridge, an audio tape system popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lear was born in Hannibal, Missouri and later moved with his family to Chicago, where he attended school up until the eighth grade. He enlisted in the United States Navy during World War I serving as a radio operator. Lear had no formal education past grade school beyond the courses which he took in the navy.
In the 1920s Lear and a partner, Elmer Wavering, invented the first practical car radio, eventually selling their patents to the Galvin Corporation (which would later become the Motorola company). In aviation electronics, Lear developed radio direction finders, autopilots, and the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. His 'LearAvian' series of portable radios, incorporating radio direction finder circuits as well as broadcast band coverage, being especially popular.
In 1941, Lear married Moya Marie Olsen[1], daughter of Vaudeville comedian John "Ole" Olson. [2]
- In 1949, Lear started Lear, Incorporated, in Santa Monica, California.
- In 1960, Lear moved to Switzerland.
- In 1962, he moved to Wichita, Kansas to start Lear Jet Industries.
- 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 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.
One of Lear's most innovative projects was his last—a revolutionary airplane called the LearFan. The turboprop was made of lightweight composite materials instead of the standard aluminum. It also featured an innovative "pusher" design, in which two aircraft engines powered a single spinning propeller blade that faced the rear of the aircraft.
The LearFan, though many years in development, was not completed before Lear died. He begged his wife, Moya Lear, to finish it, and with the help of investors, she attempted to do so. But the plane failed to obtain FAA certification, and never made it into production. This was not due to FAA concern about its use of innovative materials; rather, because of concerns that even with two engines, the gear mechanism that powered the single propeller blade might fail. If it did, the plane would crash.
Bill Lear and his wife Moya had four children: John, Shanda, David and Tina.
Trivia
- William Lear also reportedly had a good sense of humour. For instance, he named his daughter Shanda (Shanda Lear, as in "chandelier").
- Lear played a bit part as a pilot in the 1967 film In Like Flint
External links
Bibliography
- Boesen,Victor,(January, 1971).They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The Incredible Story of Bill Lear,Doubleday, ISBN 038501841X
- Rashke,Richard,(1985).Stormy genius: the life of aviation's maverick, Bill Lear,Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., DDC: 629.1300924,LCC: TL540, ISBN 0395353726