Bill Lear
Encyclopedia
William Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding the Lear Jet
Lear Jet
Learjet is a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. Learjet is now a subsidiary of Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family".-History:The Learjet started life as an...

 Corporation, a manufacturer of business jet
Business jet
Business jet, private jet or, colloquially, bizjet is a term describing a jet aircraft, usually of smaller size, designed for transporting groups of up to 19 business people or wealthy individuals...

s. He also invented the first car radio and developed the 8-track cartridge
8-track cartridge
Stereo 8, commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology. It was popular in the United States from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s, but was relatively unknown in many European countries...

, an audio tape system which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life

Lear was born on June 26, 1902 in Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal, Missouri
Hannibal is a city in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. Hannibal is located at the intersection of Interstate 72 and U.S. Routes 24, 36 and 61, approximately northwest of St. Louis. According to the 2010 U.S. Census the population was 17,606...

 to Ruben Marion Lear and Gertrude Elizabeth Powell Lear. Ruben was a man who had "success in inverse proportion to effort", so Lear's mother left him; mother and son stayed with aunt Gussie Bornhouser in Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

. Later Otto Kirmse took them in and was a step-father to Bill Lear. The family relocated to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 where Lear attended Kershaw Grammar School. On Sundays, young Lear attended the Moody Bible Institute
Moody Bible Institute
Moody Bible Institute is a Christian institution of higher education and related ministries that was founded by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. Since its founding, MBI's main campus has been located in the Near North Side of Chicago. MBI's primary ministries are education,...

. "From listening to Paul Rader, of the Moody Tabernacle, he learned grammar and how to speak. He found out how to meet people, how to shake hands, and what to say when he did so... He learned about hypocrisy, too" and ceased any further church affiliation.

Lear entered Englewood High School
Englewood Technical Prep Academy
Englewood Technical Prep Academy or sometimes referred to as simply Englewood High School , part of the Chicago Public School system, served the Englewood community on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois....

 but was dismissed for showing up teachers. He worked for the Multigraph Company, running and repairing rotary typesetting and printing machines. One summer he spent with his father in Tulsa, re-building a Model-T car. Too independent to move back with his mother in Chicago, Lear struck out cross country. He joined the U.S. Navy and was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Later after discharge, and with a young family, "he decided to complete his high school education. Starting a radio repair shop in his home, which he could tend nights, Lear enrolled at Tulsa Central High School, taking eight solids, heavy on the math. He was at the point of wrapping up the entire four-year curriculum in one when he [was again dismissed for showing up teachers]."

Radio engineer

Lear was self-taught: "He had read widely on [wireless], including the works of Nicola Tesla, the Serbian wizard. He had even built a radio set, based on a twenty-five-cent Galena crystal which he sent away for, and he had learned the Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...

, the fun ending [with the ban on radio during World War I]."
One of his first ventures was with Lawrence Sorenson, selling loose radio couplers. Lear had been an "instructor in wireless" in the US Navy so he confidently identified himself as a radio engineer to Clifford Reid in Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, known as Illinois' "Gem City," is a river city along the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County. As of the 2010 census the city held a population of 40,633. The city anchors its own micropolitan area and is the economic and regional hub of West-central Illinois, catering a...

. Reid was selling auto supplies and hired Lear to expand into radio. With contractor Julius Bergen, he founded Quincy Radio Labs and built speaker boxes for radios. Lear also helped develop WLAL which evolved into the powerful station KVOO.

Lear’s talents as engineer showed in 1924 when he moved to Chicago and built a B-battery eliminator
Battery eliminator
A battery eliminator is a device powered by an electrical source other than a battery, which then converts the source to a suitable DC voltage that may be used by a second device designed to be powered by batteries....

 for the Universal Battery Company with R. D. Morey. Then he met Waldorf Astoria Smith of the Carter Radio Company who helped him with radio theory including Ohm's law
Ohm's law
Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points...

. Tom Fletcher of the QRS Company was so impressed by Lear’s radio set designed around a QRS rectifier
Rectifier
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current , which periodically reverses direction, to direct current , which flows in only one direction. The process is known as rectification...

 tube that he hired him, offering 60% more pay than Universal Battery. Bill Grunow of the Grigsby-Grunow-Hinds Company topped that offer when Lear fixed the problem with 60,000 B-battery eliminators that they had manufactured. Lear also came up with an invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...

 in 1924 when inverter
Inverter
Inverter may refer to* Inverter , a device that converts direct current to alternating current** Inverter , an air conditioner that can continuously regulate its output by altering the compressor speed in response to cooling demand** Uninterruptible power supply, which often are based on an...

s installed at Stevens Hotel failed to perform for the Radio Manufacturers’ Association.
Lear built audio amplifiers and cases for the Magnavox
Magnavox
Magnavox is a US electronics company founded by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, who invented the moving-coil loudspeaker in 1915 at their lab in Napa, California. They formed Magnavox in 1917 in order to market their inventions....

 speakers then coming out; the "Majestic dynamic speakers" that he produced with Grunow were very popular. With Ernie Tyrman he built and sold radio sets using patented methods for which they had not been licensed. Anxious over prosecution for infraction, they both acquired ulcers. Tyrman died after surgery; Lear changed his diet.

Lear Radio Laboratories was the source of an early step to miniaturization
Miniaturization
Miniaturization is the creation of ever-smaller scales for mechanical, optical, and electronic products and devices...

 in electronics. Tuning coils in the radio frequency
Radio frequency
Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...

 stage of a set were rather large and Lear knew how to reduce their size by using Litz wire
Litz wire
Litz wire is a type of cable used in electronics to carry alternating current. The wire is designed to reduce the skin effect and proximity effect losses in conductors used at frequencies up to about 1 MHz...

. Wire braided from many fine strands has a large surface area giving it high conductivity at radio frequency. Lear borrowed $5,000 from his friend Algot Olson to make machines to wrap the strands, braid the wire, and wind the coils. The industry was set up in the basement of his mother’s old house on 65th street, and done with assistance of Don Mitchell, a railroad electrician. Lear called the company, Radio Coil and Wire Corporation. They took an order of 50,000 coils from Eugene F. McDonald
Eugene F. McDonald
Eugene F. McDonald founded Zenith Radio in 1921, a major American radio and electronics concern.He was born in 1886 in Syracuse, New York. His father was variously remembered as a storekeeper and insurance salesman. McDonald dropped out of high school at age 14 to help support the family.In 1904,...

 of Zenith Electronics
Zenith Electronics
Zenith Electronics Corporation is a brand of the South Korean company LG Electronics. The company was previously an American manufacturer of televisions and other consumer electronics, and was headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois. LG Electronics acquired a controlling share of Zenith in 1995...

 when they demonstrated them. These small coils were one-quarter the size of coils with solid wire.

Lear traded his Radio Coil business for a third interest in Paul Galvin
Paul Galvin
Paul Vincent Galvin was one of the two founders of telecommunications company Motorola. Founded as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation on September 25, 1928, Motorola is now a leader in communications equipment.-Biography:...

's Galvin Manufacturing Company. At that time the radio had not yet been developed for use in automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s, but Lear and Howard Gates of Zenith made a pair; Lear designed the circuit and layout, Gates did the metal work and Lear assembled them. When Lear presented Galvin with the prototype, it was first dismissed but later taken up and a 200 unit production run. Galvin and Lear mulled over names for the product on a cross-country trip and came up with "Motorola". The product was such a success that Galvin changed the name of the company to Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

.

Music cartridges

Lear developed the Lear Jet Stereo 8 music cartridge in 1964, better-known as the "8-track". This was an eight track variation of the four track Muntz Stereo-Pak tape cartridge, marketed by Earl "Madman" Muntz
Madman Muntz
Earl William "Madman" Muntz was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona – an alter ego who generated publicity...

 in California in 1962, itself a version of a 3-track system, Fidelipac
Fidelipac
The Fidelipac, commonly known as an NAB cartridge or simply cart, is a magnetic tape sound recording format, used for radio broadcasting for playback of material over the air such as radio commercials, jingles, station identifications, and music. Fidelipac is the official name of this industry...

. The 8-track was a commercial success that had good audio quality and was easily adapted to vehicle and home use. 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
RCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 and Lear offering the first pre-recorded Stereo 8 Music Cartridges.

Transportation

In 1968, Lear also started work on a closed circuit steam turbine to power cars and buses, and built a transit bus and converted a Chevrolet Monte Carlo
Chevrolet Monte Carlo
The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was an American-made two-door coupe introduced for model year 1970, and manufactured over six generations through model year 2007. It was marketed as a personal-luxury coupe through most of its history, with the last model version being classified as a full-sized coupe...

 sedan to use this turbine system. It used a proprietary working fluid dubbed "Learium", possibly a chlorofluorocarbon
Chlorofluorocarbon
A chlorofluorocarbon is an organic compound that contains carbon, chlorine, and fluorine, produced as a volatile derivative of methane and ethane. A common subclass are the hydrochlorofluorocarbons , which contain hydrogen, as well. They are also commonly known by the DuPont trade name Freon...

 similar to DuPont Freon.

In 1969, Lear and his friend Art Linkletter
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...

, offered their support for Craig Breedlove
Craig Breedlove
Craig Breedlove is a five-time world land speed record holder. He was the first to reach , , and , using several turbojet-powered vehicles, all named Spirit of America.-Land vehicle speed records :...

's supersonic car project.

Aviation

In 1931 Lear bought his first aircraft, a Fleet biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

 for $2,500 from a woman in Dearborn, Michigan. His instructor was F.L. Yeomans. The challenges of navigation
Navigation
Navigation is the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks...

 aloft led Lear into development of radio direction finders and avionics
Avionics
Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...

 products.

Lear founded Lear Developments, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics. Lear developed radio direction finder
Radio direction finder
A radio direction finder is a device for finding the direction to a radio source. Due to low frequency propagation characteristic to travel very long distances and "over the horizon", it makes a particularly good navigation system for ships, small boats, and aircraft that might be some distance...

s, autopilot
Autopilot
An autopilot is a mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being. An autopilot can refer specifically to aircraft, self-steering gear for boats, or auto guidance of space craft and missiles...

s, and the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. Lear also developed and marketed a line of panel-mounted radios for general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

. His "LearAvian" series of portable radios, which incorporated radio direction finder
Radio direction finder
A radio direction finder is a device for finding the direction to a radio source. Due to low frequency propagation characteristic to travel very long distances and "over the horizon", it makes a particularly good navigation system for ships, small boats, and aircraft that might be some distance...

 circuits as well as broadcast band
Broadcast band
A Broadcast band is a segment of the radio spectrum used for broadcasting.-See also:* North American broadcast television frequencies* Dead air* Internet radio* radio networks* Music radio* Old-time radio* Radio astronomy* Radio programming...

 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
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

.

In 1960, Lear moved to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 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
Lear Siegler
Lear Siegler Incorporated was created as a result of a merger between the Siegler Corporation and Lear Avionics Inc. that was concluded in 1961. John G. Brooks was the founder; President and Chairman of Siegler and William Lear was the founder; President and Chairman at Lear...

. Bill Lear next moved to Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

 to manufacture the Lear Jet
Lear Jet
Learjet is a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use. It was founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation. Learjet is now a subsidiary of Bombardier and marketed as the "Bombardier Learjet Family".-History:The Learjet started life as an...

. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the Learjet 23
Learjet 23
-References:* Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1965–1966. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1965.**-External links:*...

, the first mass produced
Mass production
Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

 business jet
Business jet
Business jet, private jet or, colloquially, bizjet is a term describing a jet aircraft, usually of smaller size, designed for transporting groups of up to 19 business people or wealthy individuals...

.

The successful Canadair Regional Jet is largely based on Lear's design for the LearStar 600, which Canadair
Canadair
Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. It was a subsidiary of other aircraft manufacturers, then a nationalized corporation until privatized in 1986, and became the core of Bombardier Aerospace....

 bought and turned into the Canadair CL-600 Challenger business jet. Lear Jet was acquired in 1990 by Bombardier Aerospace
Bombardier Aerospace
Bombardier Aerospace is a division of Bombardier Inc. and is the third-largest airplane manufacturer in the world. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada.- History :...

.

In the early 1970s, Lear backed the Foxjet ST600 with its first order. The Very Light Jet
Very Light Jet
A very light jet, entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small jet aircraft approved for single-pilot operation, seating 4-8 people, with a maximum take-off weight of under...

 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
Pusher configuration
In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...

 was powered by two turbine engines. The fuselage of this aircraft was made of lightweight composite material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...

s, 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
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...

 certification and never made it into production.

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. He married his second wife Madeline Murphy in October 1926. Their son, Bill Lear, Jr., was born on May 24, 1928. William Lear, Jr. died December 14, 2009, age 81, in Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach, Florida
Daytona Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, USA. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city has a population of 64,211. Daytona Beach is a principal city of the Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which the census bureau estimated had...

.

Lear's third marriage to Margret Radell was childless. In 1941, Lear married his fourth wife Moya Marie Olsen
Moya Lear
Moya Marie Olsen Lear was an American businesswoman and the wife of aviation pioneer Bill Lear. Her father was vaudeville genius John "Ole" Olsen, whose Depression-era show Hellzapoppin was the longest running Broadway hit in history.Her mother was Lillian, a strong and practical woman...

, daughter of Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 comedian John "Ole" Olsen
Ole Olsen (comedian)
John Sigvard "Ole" Olsen was an American vaudevillian and comedian.Born in Peru, Indiana, he graduated from Northwestern University in 1912 with a degree in music and hit the Vaudeville circuit...

. 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's son John is an accomplished pilot and ufologist
Ufology
Ufology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study reports and associated evidence of unidentified flying objects . UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years by governments, independent groups, and scientists...

, noted in the latter field for promoting a variety of conspiracy theories which were based, he claimed, on information obtained from military contacts.

Although Lear had a reputation of being difficult, he reportedly had a good sense of humor
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...

, as evidenced by naming his second daughter Shanda (~"chandelier").

The 75-year-old Lear died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

 in Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...

 on May 14, 1978. His remains were cremated and scattered at sea.

Tributes and honors

  • 1954, member Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans
    Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans
    The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, that was founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphasize the importance of higher education...

  • 1972, Elliott Cresson Medal
    Elliott Cresson Medal
    The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848...

  • 1974, Tony Jannus Award
    Tony Jannus Award
    The Tony Jannus Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in scheduled commercial aviation by airline executives, inventors and manufacturers, and government leaders. The award is conferred annually by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society and was first bestowed in 1964 in Tampa,...

     for his distinguished contributions to aviation.
  • 1978, National Aviation Hall of Fame
    National Aviation Hall of Fame
    The American National Aviation Hall of Fame is located at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, east Dayton, Ohio...

  • 2003, Hannibal Municipal Airport was renamed the Hannibal Regional Airport, William P. Lear Field
    Hannibal Regional Airport
    Hannibal Regional Airport is a public use airport in Marion County, Missouri, United States. It is located four nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Hannibal, Missouri, and is owned by the City of Hannibal. The airport is used for general aviation with no commercial...

     in his honor.

Learisms

  • On aerodynamics: "If it looks good, it will fly good."
  • On management: "If you put up 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."

External links

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