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Lear Jet Calls It A Day...

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miamiair (netAirspace FAA) 12 Feb 21, 12:48Post
Bombardier To End Learjet Production, Lay Off Workers

The ramp-up in Global 7500 deliveries led to a 3 percent year-over-year growth in Bombardier’s business aircraft revenues to $5.6 billion, but the company is ending Learjet production by year-end, laying off 1,600 workers, and consolidating completions activity in Montreal as it grapples with the debt that it was left with after becoming a pure-play business aviation company.

Link


Well, that sucks.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
Queso (netAirspace ATC Tower Chief & Founding Member) 12 Feb 21, 17:57Post
Best looking non-military plane to ever be built, in my opinion. "LearJet" says more for the class of aircraft than "Business Jet" ever has, or will.
Slider... <sniff, sniff>... you stink.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 12 Feb 21, 23:05Post
I have always found them to be one of the harder private jets to visually acquire.
Fumanchewd 13 Feb 21, 16:13Post
It was Bombardier that called it a day on Lear. The first light private jets built and one of the first private jets entirely for civilian use as the Saberliner, Falcon 10/20, Jetstar and others were built for the military initially and then sold to the civilian market. Bill Lear was a hands on engineering genius and aviation hero. The company had expanded considerably (even selling parts for the space shuttle's main engine) and was very successful.

Personally, I remember when I was around 7 or 8 years old and my father took me up in one of Motorola's Learjets that had just received maintenance from him. The pilots were feeling a little feisty that day and after requesting permission from ATC shot up almost vertically in the sky. That same flight they decided to take it up to 50,000 feet just for fun as well... I remember seeing how dark the sky was and the curvature of the Earth from that altitude. Not many jets, let alone private jets were capable of this.

Later on, I also worked around some of the first Learjets, the 23 and 24, and was amazed at their performance 30 years later. Their straight engines were rockets that would outperform most modern jets to this day.

I also managed and chartered a Lear 36 (the two back seats were removed and replaced with fuel tanks) for a famous Hawaiian lawyer that, with the right winds, would fly from California to Hawaii and back... no other light jet could do that for decades (until other Learjets like the 45 and 60 came along).

I also managed several Lear 35's, 55's, and 60's that were the backbone of American private aviation for decades.

Bombardier's acquisition of Lear in 1990 killed the Learjet. When almost every single private jet company that pushed new products in the US flourished with expanding larger platforms (Citation, Raytheon, Beechcraft, Gulfstream, etc) Bombardier allowed Learjet to slowly die as they didn't properly fund them and wouldn't allow them to encroach on their larger jet line that was continually getting smaller and smaller.

Bombardier attempted to make the Lear larger without encroaching on their product line, but they failed miserably. It seems that every new product line was just a stretch of the old. Let's look at the aircraft that Bombardier allowed Lear to produce... The Lear 60 was just built on the same wider Lear 55 platform built by Lear in the 80's. The Lear 45 was a modern stretch of the older Lear 35 series and many thought the fuselage was far too narrow for such a modern and long platform. The Lear 85 was the only floor up, innovative new product that Bombardier allowed in its 30 years holding Learjet- and it came out when the market was over saturated with similar aircraft from Raytheon, Citation, Embraer, and yes, even Bombardier had the Challenger 300 that it competed with. It was a failure partly because of the market, but mainly because Bombardier funded and promoted it half-assed.

Then we have the Canadair Challenger, The CRJ, and the Global Express platform, which all were derived from the original Bill Lear concept. This may be a bad interpretation of Bombardier, but I've always seen them as a company that buys innovative aviation companies and platforms.... stretched them, incorporates new technologies and avionics in them, and plays them out until they die. Lets look at the Challenger.... originally a Canadair Challenger, Bombardier acquired the company and continued the same exact airframe for decades with few changes. A company that I used to work for bought a Challenger 605 around 2010- almost exactly the same airframe as the original Canadair Challenger from the 70's but with better engines, avionics, etc. As stated the CRJ and Global Express was a stretch of the same design. In the last 20 years we have seen an explosion of new aircraft from Bombardier such as the CL 300 and a few others. But it doesn't change the fact that Bombardier's primary business model had been to acquire and stretch old airframes with new bells and whistles.

This is the story of how Bombardier slowly choked out one of the most innovative American aviation companies.
Last edited by Fumanchewd on 13 Feb 21, 17:07, edited 2 times in total.
"Give us a kiss, big tits."
Fumanchewd 13 Feb 21, 17:03Post
Lucas wrote:I have always found them to be one of the harder private jets to visually acquire.


They have always had one of the lowest profiles which would make them high performance but also difficult to see. I would think the Lear 55 and 60's wouldn't be so bad though.

What about Citation Jets, Premiers, and VLJs such as the Vision?
"Give us a kiss, big tits."
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 13 Feb 21, 21:55Post
Fumanchewd wrote:
Lucas wrote:I have always found them to be one of the harder private jets to visually acquire.


They have always had one of the lowest profiles which would make them high performance but also difficult to see. I would think the Lear 55 and 60's wouldn't be so bad though.

What about Citation Jets, Premiers, and VLJs such as the Vision?


The older Lears are harder than the newer ones, certainly. Something about the build of Premiers and CJs makes them pretty easy to acquire even in VFR twr only. The Visions aren't too bad, at least compared to Eclipses. The couple of times I've worked a Viper jet it was very hard to spot.

Also once had an old Lear land and he was BOOKING it like a lawndart. I told him something to the effective of, "If able turn left at _x taxiway," which happened to be the very last one, and he responded, "Negative, we'll just take the last on—oh shit—" as he went into the overrun.

LOL. Zippy little things.
captoveur 25 Feb 21, 16:33Post
Queso wrote:Best looking non-military plane to ever be built, in my opinion. "LearJet" says more for the class of aircraft than "Business Jet" ever has, or will.


But.. It was the C-21
I like my coffee how I like my women: Black, bitter, and preferably fair trade.
Lucas (netAirspace ATC & Founding Member) 08 Mar 21, 06:56Post
captoveur wrote:
Queso wrote:Best looking non-military plane to ever be built, in my opinion. "LearJet" says more for the class of aircraft than "Business Jet" ever has, or will.


But.. It was the C-21



{laugh}

I hate all those C numbers.

Also, in the middle of the night, at a remote location, I have reason to post that old LJs are also very smelly airplanes.
 

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