MAGAZINE 10 | (^73)
The mix of successes and failures in
the introduction of the first corpo-
rate jets has a point in common: the
omnipresence of military orders
that, directly or indirectly, have
made viable the development of
the aircrafts. But there is a remar-
kable exception that has curiously
become the bigger case of success
in the pioneering years of business
aviation. Without the generous
government contracts, the Ameri-
can engineer and inventor William
“Bill” Lear needed to create some-
thing different to enter the promi-
sing market of business jets.
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The opportunity emerged from Eu-
rope, from his son Bill Jr – test pilot in
the project of the P-16, a small ground
attack jet developed in the late 1950s
by the Swiss company FFA. Local
government has given up the aircraft
after some accidents, but Bill Jr. was
able to see in the straight and shar-
pened wings of the model and in the
tail assembly the ingredients his father
was looking for a more agile executive
jet, light and cheaper than those of the
competitors. In October 1963, back
to the United States, they put to fly the
Learjet 23, a compact aircraft for four
to six passengers, with similar perfor-
mance of the big business jets. And
with price around US$ 500,000.
It is told that, visiting the aircraft
prototype in a fair, a potential buyer
has claimed he was not able to stand
up in the low and narrow cabin of
the Learjet 23. “You also don’t stand
up in your Rolls-Royce” replied Bill
senior. “if you want to walk through
the cabin and fly three times slower
buy a DC-3”. Nearly one decade later
came back to the market, technica-
lly improved and with a fairly more
practical and elegant design, the con-
cept that the pioneer Beechcraft, was
able to apply in the veteran MS-760.
chris devlin
(Chris Devlin)
#1