- Bill Lear
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name = Bill Lear
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caption = Bill Lear
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birth_date =26 June 1902
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death_date =14 May 1978
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nationality = American
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known_for =Lear Jet
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footnotes = William (Bill) Powell Lear (26 June 1902 –14 May 1978 ) was an Americaninventor andbusinessman . He is best known for founding theLear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer ofbusiness jet s. He also developed the8-track cartridge , anaudio tape system which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s.Early life
Lear was born in
Hannibal, Missouri as anonly child . He later moved with his family toChicago , where he attended school up until theeighth grade . He enlisted in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War I , serving as aradio operator. Lear had no formal education past the eighth grade other than the courses which he took in the Navy.Inventor
In the 1920s, Lear and a partner, Elmer Wavering, invented the first practical
car radio , eventually selling their patents toPaul Galvin of the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (which would later becomeMotorola ). In 1930, Lear used his profits from the sale of his car radio patents to found Lear Developments, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics. Lear developed radio direction finders,autopilot s, 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 incorporatedradio direction finder circuits as well asbroadcast band coverage, were especially popular.Lear married his second wife Madeline Murphy in October 1926. Their son, Bill Lear Jr. was born on May 24, 1928. After his divorce with Madeline, Lear married Margaret Radel, but it didn't last long. In 1941, Lear married his fourth wife Moya Marie Olsen [http://www.aafo.com/library/history/moya_lear/] , daughter of
Vaudeville comedian John "Ole" Olsen. 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.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 failing to convince its board to go into the aircraft manufacturing business. That company thereafter was known asLear Siegler . Bill Lear next moved to Wichita,Kansas to manufacture theLear Jet . On7 October 1963 , Lear Jet started test flights on theLearjet 23 , the first mass produced business jet.Innovations
Lear developed the Lear Jet Stereo 8-track music tape cartridge in 1964 as a new variation of the 4-Track
Stereo-Pak tape cartridge, marketed by Earl "Madman" Muntz in California in 1962, itself a version of the 3-track system called "Fidelipak". The 8-track was a commercial success that had good audio quality and was easily adapted to vehicle and home use. [ [http://www.videointerchange.com/audio_history.htm Vintage Audio History] ] 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 withRCA and Lear offering the first pre-recorded Stereo 8 Music Cartridges.The successful
Canadair Regional Jet is largely based on Lear's design for the LearStar 600, whichCanadair bought and turned into theCanadair CL-600 Challenger business jet. Lear Jet was acquired in 1990 byBombardier Aerospace .In 1968, Lear also started work on a closed circuit steam turbine to power cars and buses, and built a transit bus and sedan using this turbine system.
One of Lear's most innovative projects was his last—a revolutionary airplane called the Lear Fan. The fuselage of this plane was made of lightweight
composite material s instead of the standardaluminum material. It also featured an innovative "pusher" design, in which twoaircraft engines powered a single spinningpropeller blade that faced the rear of the aircraft.The Lear Fan, though many years in development, was ultimately never completed. 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 might fail. If it did, the plane would crash.Death
The 75-year-old Lear died of
leukemia on14 May 1978 . At the time of his death, Lear's current project was the Model 2100 Learfan, a seven-passenger plane whose tail mounted propeller was powered by two turboprop engines.Bill Lear had a total of seven children, born from 1925 to 1954: Lear and his first wife Ethel Peterson Lear: Mary Louise born January 1925
Lear and his second wife Madeline Murphy Lear: William Lear Jr. born May 1928 and Patti born on Bills birthday June 26th 1929
Lear was married to Margret Radell for a very short time, no children.Bill Lear and his fourth wife, Moya, had four children: John, Shanda, David and Tina.
Popular culture
* Though he could be difficult to work for, William Lear reportedly had a good sense of humor. He named his daughter Shanda ("chandelier").
* Lear played abit part as a pilot in the 1967 film "In Like Flint ".Learisms
* On aeronautics, "If it looks good, it will fly good."
* On management, "If you put 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."References
Notes
Bibliography
* Boesen,Victor."They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The Incredible Story of Bill Lear". New York: Doubleday & Co., 1971. ISBN 0-385-01841-X.
* Close, Dan. "Love Him or Hate Him. Bill Lear was a Creator". "The Wichita Eagle"29 April 1985 . [http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/history/article.asp?id=103] Access date:7 July 2007 .
* Rashke, Richard."Stormy Genius: The Life of Aviation's Maverick, Bill Lear". Boston:Houghton Mifflin Co., 1985. ISBN 0-395-35372-6.External links
* [http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/lear.html MIT Inventor of the week]
* [http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=-1182655547&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1 Biography] from TheNational Aviation Hall of Fame
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.