Bill Lear

Lear was self-taught: "He had read widely on wireless, including the works of Nikola Tesla, the scientist/inventor. 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, the fun ending with the ban on radio during World War I."[3]^:15

One of his first ventures was with Lawrence Sorensen, selling loose radio couplers. Lear had been an "instructor in wireless" in the U.S. Navy so he confidently identified himself as a radio engineer to Clifford Reid in Quincy, Illinois. 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 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. Tom Fletcher of the QRS Company was so impressed by Lear's radio set designed around a QRS rectifier 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 in 1924 when power inverters installed at Stevens Hotel failed to perform for the Radio Manufacturers' Association.

Lear built audio amplifiers and cases for the Magnavox speakers then coming out. The Magnavox "majestic dynamic speakers" that he produced with Grunow were very popular. With Ernie Tyrman he built and sold radio sets, using methods patented by others, which they had not licensed. Anxious over prosecution for patent infringement, they both developed ulcers. Tyrman died after surgery; consequently, Lear changed his diet.

Lear Radio Laboratories was the source of an early step to miniaturization in electronics. Tuning coils in the radio frequency stage of a set were rather large and Lear knew how to reduce their size by using Litz wire. 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 of Zenith Electronics when they demonstrated them. These small coils were one-quarter the size of coils with solid wire.[3]^:15–23

Lear traded his Radio Coil business for a one-third interest in Paul Galvin's Galvin Manufacturing Company. At that time the radio had not yet been developed for use in automobiles, 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. Later the idea was surfaced by Galvin and a 200-unit production run was made. Galvin and Lear mulled over names for the product on a cross-country trip and came up with "Motorola" which was a blend of "motor" and the then popular suffix -ola used with audio equipment of the time (for example "Victrola"). The product was such a success that Galvin changed the name of the company to Motorola.[1][3]^{:23, 24}

8-track tape

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 in California in 1962, itself a version of a 3-track system, Fidelipac. The 8-track was a commercial success that provided good audio quality and was easily adapted to vehicle and home use.[4] 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 offered the first pre-recorded Stereo 8 Music Cartridges.[5]

In 1931, Lear bought his first aircraft, a Fleet biplane for $2,500 from a woman in Dearborn, Michigan. The challenges of aerial navigation led Lear into the development of radio direction finders and avionics products.

Lear founded Lear Developments, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics.[6] Lear developed radio direction finders, autopilots, and the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. He was awarded the Collier Trophy for this contribution in 1949.[7]

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. The company earned about $100 million during WW II for its products.

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 (SAAC). The company's goal was to redesign the FFA P-16 jet fighter into a small business jet, designated as SAAC 23. After two crashes during test flights of the FFA P-16, the Swiss government had cancelled its order for the aircraft and no other customers had been found.[8]

During the short existence of SAAC, King Michael I of Romania met Bill Lear and agreed to work as a test pilot for the Swiss part of the company. This was during the forced exile of the King, that lasted for 50 years, until 1997.[9]

Learjet 25, an example of the Lear executive jets that still bear his name

In 1962, Lear sold his interest in Lear Incorporated to the Siegler Corporation after failing to persuade Lear Incorporated's board to go into the aircraft manufacturing business. The remaining company was thereafter known as Lear Siegler.

Bill Lear next moved to Wichita, Kansas, to manufacture the resulting converted design as the Lear Jet. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the Learjet 23, the first mass-produced business jet. The first Lear Jet was sold in 1963; it could carry eight passengers at 560 mph and cost about $650,000 fully equipped, about $400,000 less than its competitors at the time. Although the Lear Jet was quite successful and remains in production, Bill Lear was eventually forced to sell Lear Jet Corp. to the Gates Rubber Co. in 1967 due to other financial losses.[10]

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 sedan to use this turbine system. It used a proprietary working fluid dubbed Learium, possibly a chlorofluorocarbon similar to DuPont Freon.[11]

In the early 1970s, Lear backed the Foxjet ST600 with its first order. The Very Light Jet project failed, but the VLJ concept became popular again 30 years later.[12]

In 1976, Lear sold an option to his LearStar concept to Canadair, a Montreal aircraft manufacturer.[13] The idea was to design an executive aircraft which would bring together a supercritical wing with Lycoming's new turbofan engine. However, the concept was only a very rough outline,[14] prepared by a consultant.[15] Although Canadair took up its option, Lear eventually realized that the Canadians had simply been interested in using his reputation and skills at promotion, to "penetrate the market," Canadair's design had little relation to his concept and Lear had no role in its development.[16] However, the Canadair Challenger business jet was to have a long career, with several variants. Bombardier Aerospace, by that time the parent company of Canadair, acquired Lear Jet in 1990.

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 was powered by two turbine engines. The fuselage of this aircraft was made of lightweight composite materials, instead of the more typical aluminum alloys. 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 certification and so was never put into production.