Sunday 10 April 2022

The Last Learjet ...

 


Mark Phelps wrote a great article:

"Last Learjet Rolls Off Bombardier’s Wichita Assembly Line".  Phelps describes the sale of the first one: On June 4, 1964, Bill Lear laughingly told his executive staff gathered around a conference table in Wichita, Kansas, “OK, we’ve just sold our first Lear Jet!”  But the “customer” was the insurance company.

As related in Richard Baske’s biography of Bill Lear, “Stormy Genius,” an FAA test pilot had neglected to retract the wing spoilers before a certification test flight, and the prototype Lear Jet 23 crashed into a field off the end of the runway.  It burned to ashes, but not before the FAA pilot and company test pilot escaped uninjured.  The insurance money enabled the struggling company to eke out the seven weeks needed to achieve certification on July 31, 1964, and Lear Jet #2 was delivered to its—real-world—cash customer shortly thereafter.

Now the last of more than 3,000 iconic Lear Jets rolled out...

Read the whole story here: 

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/last-learjet-rolls-off-bombardiers-wichita-assembly-line

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