Aviation
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. 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. The company's goal was to redesign the FFA P-16 into a small business jet. After two crashes of test flights, the Swiss government had cancelled its order for this jet fighter and no other customers had been found. Bill Lear next moved to Wichita, Kansas, to manufacture the resulting converted design as the Lear Jet. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the Learjet 23, the first mass produced business jet.
In 1962 Lear sold his interest in Lear Incorporated to the Siegler Corporation, after having failed to persuade Lear Incorporated's board to go into the aircraft manufacturing business. The company thereafter was known as Lear Siegler.
In 1976, Lear sold an option to his LearStar concept to Canadair, a Montreal (Canada) aircraft manufacturer. The idea was to design an executive aircraft which would bring together a supercritical wing with Lycoming's new turbofan engine. However, the concept was only a very rough outline, prepared by a California consultant. Although Canadair took up its option, Lear eventually realized that the Canadians had simply been interested in using his reputation and skills at promotion, to "penetrate the market" (Canadair's ensuing design had little relation to his concept and Lear was allowed no role in its development). However, the Canadair Challenger business jet was to have a long career, with several variants. 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.
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.
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