Lear Jet

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Image:C-GBFP Adlair Aviation Learjet 25 (LJ25).JPG Lear Jet was a company which produced business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in 1960 by William Powell Lear Jr. as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. The company was formed to manufacture an executive twin-engined high speed jet to be known as the Learjet 23 (SAAC-23).

The starting point for what became the very symbol of the "biz jet" started life as an abortive attempt by a Swiss aircraft company to build a new ground-attack fighter aircraft, the FFA P-16 of 1955. Although this effort proved unsucessful and by 1960 efforts to produce the warplane had ceased, the basic structure of this aircaft was seen by Bill Lear and his team as a good starting point to the development of a business jet. In fact, the wing (with the distinctive tip tanks) and landing gear of the first Learjets were little changed from those used by the Swiss warplane prototypes. The tooling for building the aircraft was purchased and moved to Wichita, Kansas, United States, in 1962.

In 1963, 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. Several derived models followed, with the Learjet 24 and 25 first flying in 1966. In the same year, the company was renamed Lear Jet Industries Inc.

In 1967, all of Bill Lear's assets -- he held approximately 60% of the company (US$27,000,000)-- were acquired by the Gates Rubber Company of Denver, Colorado, United States. However, he remained on the board until 1969. Later in 1969, the company was merged with Gates Aviation and in 1970 the company name was changed to Gates Learjet Corporation.

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.

In 1984, the Gates Learjet Corporation announced the start of their Aerospace Division, a high technology endeavour. 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, United States, and production was restarted both in Wichita and Tucson.

In 1987, the Gates Learjet Corporation was acquired by Integrated Acquisition, Inc. 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. The next year, 1990, Bombardier Aerospace purchased the Learjet Corporation.

Later models of Learjet aircraft generally have a greater range and capacity and are produced by Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family". These have a swept back wing rather than the straighter wing with prominent fuel tanks on their extremities that characterised the early models, being reminiscent of the Lockheed T-33 military trainer. These later variants bear the model numbers 45 and upwards and are far quieter.

The ICAO designators as used in flight plans are for the various models are as follows. The ICAO listing of the company name is in parenthesis:

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Incidents and accidents

On October 25, 1999, Payne Stewart and several other golf notables were flying in a Lear Jet 35 plane from Orlando, Florida to Dallas, Texas. The plane suffered a loss of cabin pressure, which was not noticed until Jacksonville's Air Traffic Control Tower contacted the plane and got no response. All died. Later, Learjet was cleared of all charges.

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See also

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External link

fi:Learjet fr:Learjet

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