From the editor: Learjet departs the fix

Parent company Bombardier had neglected the brand for years, canceling its all-composite Lear 85 program in 2015, and coming out with a bare-bones, “economy” model—the Learjet 75—that has met with a mixed reception. Maybe this is part of Bombardier’s long-term struggle with its bottom line, as evidenced by its shedding a wide range of business units. Needy for cash, Bombardier sold one company after another—de Havilland, Bombardier Transportation (maker of rail cars)—and even spun off Bombardier Recreational Products the company that started it all in 1942. That’s when founder Armand Bombardier came out with the first of what was to become the Ski-Doo brand of snowmobiles, (or “snow machines” if you’re Canadian). Later, the Can Am Spyder, a three-wheeled motorcycle, was added to the line. (I have one on my Christmas list.)

Then Bombardier ceded control of its CSeries (the CS100 and CS300) of 125- to 145-seat single-aisle airliners to Airbus and the government of Quebec in 2018. Presto! Airbus renamed them A220s and instantly acquired airplanes that augmented its successful A320.

The Learjet (or Lear Jet, as it was called in the early days) was an iconic design that was timed right, captured the public imagination at a time of economic expansion, and essentially kicked off the market for a new type of general aviation airplane—the “business jet.” Even the name was magic. To incurious nonpilots, any jet smaller than a Boeing 707 was a “Learjet,” the same way any propeller-driven airplane was a “Piper Cub”—even if it was a King Air.

Rock stars and other high-profile entertainers glommed on to the Learjet. The Byrds’ 1966 songs “2-4-2 Fox Trot” (“Go ’n ride the Lear Jet, baby”) was inspired by a flight in a Learjet, as was “Eight Miles High.” Back in the storied ’60s, if you were cultural royalty, you had a Learjet. The fledgling Lear Jet company took every advantage of the Learjet’s hipness, and sales grew as the original Learjets 23, 25, 28, and 35 were followed by the models 35, 55, 40/40XR, and 70.

Part of the Learjet’s appeal is owed to its originator, William P. (“Bill”) Lear, a world-class visionary, self-taught engineer, inventor, and marketer. Before the Learjet, Lear invented the first affordable car radio, then sold it to the Motorola Company in 1924. Then he designed radio amplifiers, selling the concept to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1934—a move that let him start Lear Inc. He went on to make cowl flap motors in World War II, then first direction finders (the Lear-O-Scope), and autopilots (Learmatic Navigators). In 1964, when he wasn’t working on Learjets, he designed and sold the first automobile eight-track player, the Lear Jet Stereo 8. You can still find them on eBay.

Lear brushed off Learjet critics who said its cabin was too small and had no headroom. “Hell, you don’t stand up in your car, do you?” he’d thunder. Which was ironic, because he went on to design the LearStar 600, a larger, widebody business jet with, yes, stand-up headroom.

Here we start to come full circle. Canadair, a Canadian government-owned airplane manufacturer, bought the LearStar concept in 1975, then put it into production as the first of the Canadair Challenger series of large business jets. It was, as the marketing department crowed, “WideBody LeaderShip.” Alas, Canadair was sold to Bombardier in 1986, which in turn bought Learjet in 1990.

The Challenger series lives on, along with the Global line, as Bombardier’s torchbearers. But the Learjet is heading west. Today, the only airplane with a chance at evoking the panache, lifestyle, ambiance, and excitement that Learjet did in its heyday is the upcoming Aerion AS2, a delta-wing supersonic trijet that claims to get you anywhere in the world in three hours. Some say the AS2 is just too over-the-top to make it. But that’s what they said about the Lear Jet in 1963.

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