Bill Lear

Bill Lear
Bill Lear
Born	June 26, 1902 (1902-06-26) Hannibal, Missouri
Died	May 14, 1978 (1978-05-15)
Cause of death	Leukemia
Nationality	American
Occupation	Engineer, Inventor
Employer	Learjet
Known for	car radio, Lear Jet
Spouse(s)	Ethel Peterson Lear Madeline Murphy Lear Margret Radell Moya Olsen Lear
Children	Mary Louise, William, Jr., Patti, John, Shanda, David, and Tina

William (Bill) Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet Corporation, a manufacturer of business jets. He also invented the first car radio and developed the 8-track cartridge, an audio tape system which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

Early life

Lear was born in Hannibal, Missouri as an only child. He later moved with his family to Chicago, where he attended school until the eighth grade. He enlisted in the United States Navy during World War I, serving as a radio operator. Lear had no formal education past the eighth grade other than the courses which he took in the Navy.^{[citation needed]}

Inventor

In the 1920s, Lear and a partner, Elmer Wavering, invented the first practical car radio, calling it "Motorola" (a combination of motor and Victrola).^[1] The two couldn't afford the booth fees at an automobile trade show to advertise their new invention, so they parked outside of the convention center's parking lot and played the radio from their car, attracting orders as people walked by.^[1] They eventually sold their patents to Paul Galvin of the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (which would later become Motorola). 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, 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 married his second wife Madeline Murphy in October 1926. Their son, Bill Lear Jr. was born on May 24, 1928.^{[citation needed]} After his divorce from Madeline, Lear married Margaret Radel, but it didn't last long.^{[citation needed]} In 1941, Lear married his fourth wife Moya Marie Olsen daughter of Vaudeville comedian John "Ole" Olsen.^[2] 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 having failed to persuade its board to go into the aircraft manufacturing business. That company thereafter was known as Lear Siegler. Bill Lear next moved to Wichita, Kansas to manufacture the Lear Jet. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the Learjet 23, the first mass produced business jet.

Innovations

Lear developed the Lear Jet Stereo 8 cartridge in 1964. This was an eight track variation of the 4-Track Stereo-Pak tape cartridge, marketed by Earl "Madman" Muntz in California in 1962, itself a version of a 3-track system, Fidelipac. The 8-track was a commercial success that had good audio quality and was easily adapted to vehicle and home use.^[3] 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 with RCA 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, which Canadair bought and turned into the Canadair CL-600 Challenger business jet. Lear Jet was acquired in 1990 by Bombardier 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.^{[citation needed]}

One of Lear's most innovative projects was his last—a revolutionary aircraft called the Lear Fan. The fuselage of this aircraft was made of lightweight composite materials instead of the standard aluminum material. It also featured an innovative "pusher" design, in which two aircraft engines powered a single spinning propeller 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 aircraft 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 aircraft would be forced to land and possibly crash.

Personal life

Lear had a total of seven children, born from 1925 to 1954. With his first wife, Ethel Peterson Lear, Mary Louise was born January 1925. With his second wife Madeline Murphy Lear, William Lear Jr. was born May 1928 and Patti was born on Lear's birthday, June 26, 1929. His third marriage to Margret Radell was childless. With his fourth wife, Moya, the couple had four children: John, Shanda, David, and Tina.^{[citation needed]} Though he could be difficult to work for,^[4] Lear reportedly had a good sense of humor. He named his daughter Shanda ("chandelier"). Lear's son John is an accomplished pilot and renowned ufologist.

The 75-year-old Lear died of leukemia on May 14, 1978. At the time of his death, Lear's current project was the Model 2100 Learfan, a seven-passenger aircraft whose tail mounted propeller was powered by two jet engines.

Tributes and honors

In 1974, Lear was awarded the Tony Jannus Award for his distinguished contributions to aviation. In 2003, Hannibal Regional Airport (formerly Hannibal Municipal Airport) was renamed the William P. Lear Field in honor of Lear.

Lear played a bit part as a pilot in the 1967 film In Like Flint.

Learisms

• On aerodynamics, "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."
• On weight reduction in the Learjet, "I'd sell my grandmother to save one pound."

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

• MIT Inventor of the Week
• Biography from The National Aviation Hall of Fame
• Bill Lear at Find a Grave