The Learjet Legacy | Behind the Wings on PBS  

I am not surprised Bombardier closing the US Lear jet assembly lines . Bombardier have made many puzzling and flat out bizarre business decisions over the last 15 years mostly driving by politics or by wrong headed cost cutting at the expense of quality aircraft (cough cough) Like reckless cost cutting policies started by Harry Stonesphincter and continue by his successors which eventually came to head with 737 max disasters and the 787 dreamliner chaos. Harry Stonesphincter main claim to fame was spent hundreds of millions dollars moving Boeing headquarters to Chicago mainly to keep his wife happy when it made Zero business sense and we all know how well Harry Stonesphincter marriage went 🤣🤣. Am I sadden by the closing of Lear Jet yes, Surprised No considering Bombardier passed business decisions.

My father got my mother to get my sister, brother and me out of school to let my father show us all the new learjet. Traveling at times thereafter, there was an excitement and thrill that I cannot easily describe. You just knew it was special and that you needed to actually savor every moment.

Learjet Aviation is for sale, If no deal can be found it will shutter. They just don't have strong enough sales to make it work.

They won't regret it.. they're too busying regretting selling the A220.

😅😅​@@daveshondel5108jkkmk😅😅jkkko o😊kno de😅

I will “me too” you on that. Except but just the 23’s, 24’s, 25’s and 35’s You are lucky to fly the 28.

@@bearlemley Bear, I flew the 28 Longhorn out of Houston in 1981 ish. It was fast and climbed better than the others without the tip tanks. Only problem was not much fuel and 2-2.5 hrs after TO you better be descending to land. Beautiful jet but limited. The 28/29’s did not last long. Like I said “Great Memories” that last a lifetime.

@Bobb Grimley You're right - In a hurry - Corrected. Take Care. It was about the experience of being with those wonderful machines.

I saw my dad!!! 44 seconds in, on left in orange flight suit

@@patticole1627 That's awesome 😊👍

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

Was that at Lockheed or an airline?

Charter outfit

Very cool! Thanks for the info!

You're welcome!

This was disappointing. They decided to go emotional instead of technical. Wasted opportunity

If I may ask, in what ways was it challenging? (not a pilot)

Bill Lear did indeed have a daughter named Shanda

No problem! Glad you liked it!

Glad you enjoyed it!

You brought up some inconvenient truths, lol. I can see the arguments against the MS760 being a 'true' business jet, but the JetStar was the real deal, even if its origins weren't based on a 'business jet' business model, per se. If any jet could be considered the original business jet from a modern point of view, however, the JetStar would be it, based on its configuration and looks. Now, as far as designing a jet from the ground up strictly to be sold to the civilian market, the Lear company as a whole was 'that jet' so I can see your argument from that point of view. But, as far as a small, privately owned jet for civilians go, the Paris Jet is arguably probably the first one. The JetStar second. Learjet third...

@@culcune Thanks for your reply! Well it has been 5 months since I made my comment about the Learjet Model 23 not being the first business jet and, upon further research, based on aircraft first flights, this is what I have found: not only did the MS760 Paris Jet (7/9/54) and the Lockheed Jetstar (9/4/57) fly before the Lear 23 - so did the North American Sabreliner (9/16/58), the DeHavilland DH125 (8/13/62), The Rockwell Jet Commander (1/27/63) and the Dassault Falcon 20 (5/4/63). The Lear 23 first flew on 10/7/63 - which would roughly make it the seventh business jet to fly (nowhere close to being the first)! Sadly, after 59 years and six months of production, the very last Learjet (model 75 Liberty) has been delivered!

@@stevenward4162 Wow! I copied and pasted all those names to Google and sure enough, a whole slew of business jet picters popped up. So, I guess the only way to keep Learjet as a 'first' would be that the company as a whole was the FIRST company to be set up to design and build business jets exclusively. Yes, sad to see that they produced their very last plane. When the 'end of the line' of Learjet was discussed a few years ago, I wondered why Bombardier didn't simply keep the Learjet name and call their 'Global' series 'Learjet'. Already had worldwide name recognition and would have kept the Learjet legacy alive.

@@culcune Maybe Bombardier has other things up their sleeves with the Learjet name! From what I've read, they intend to use the Learjet facility for conversion/upgrade work on special military Global aircraft! On another footnote, the first couple of Lockheed Jetstars were twin-engined and powered by Bristol Orpheus turbojets when they first flew in 1957! Sometime later in 1959, Lockheed built and flew the first of the four-engined Jetstars with Pratt&Whitney JT12 turbojets! Now, as a 20 year employee and retiree of Gulfstream Aerospace, I appreciate the progress on all of the early and current production business jets from the various manufacturers, especially what we were able to accomplish with our Gulfstream series of jets. Hopefully, in my lifetime, I will get to see someone build a supersonic business jet (but that's a whole other subject)!

@@stevenward4162 Wow, again! You have firsthand knowledge of the industry as an insider. Your former employer, Gulfstream, has a strong following itself, and seems to have adapted to the business jet world very nicely. I was very impressed with the small airplane, the Citation X, flying nearly at Mach 1, and having a long range, but now, with a much larger Gulfstream jet, one can fly double the passengers at a similar speed and a much longer range. That is definitely progress and it seems that Gulfstream will continue to be a leader in its field for years to come.

Glad you liked it!

Thank you!

same here, I'm like "Who is this imposter?"

Matt is at the Museum of Flight in Seattle I believe now.

Yeah, Matthew Burchette moved to curate the Museum of Flight - I believe he still does video "tour" videos.

Do you gave any pictures of 23-048 N805LJ? When did Mr. Brown use this airplane?

@@richardkovich4474 There are many pictures on RU-vid of Mr. Brown and that plain one album cover I believe we have it and some other ones . the plane had a new paint job shortly after we got it because it had to go back to get a better deicing kit and a couple of other improvements that pretty much turned it from a 23 into a 24. I do remember the landing gear was beefed up. The Learjet back then only had fuel in the wings and the nacelle (tip tanks) and it used a lot of fuel. Weight and balance of the wings was extremely important and in the center console was the switch that fed from the four different tanks. We picked up that airplane about 1966 as I recall we thought you could just pick up the phone and buy a jet like a car, you actually have to order it and wait a long time but we got lucky because one of the customers that had a double order decided to only by one and the other one had already been completed so we were good to go I believe the cost was a little over $1 million. We were used to commercial and this little Learjet was loud as hell! Especially when we are not expecting it and the landing gear started going down! As soon as the wheel well doors start to open the wind noise is horrific! And occasionally the pilot would be coming in perhaps a little fast but when he hit The runway perfectly it was just a gentle kiss but if something happened and it landed one side first and then the other one, This high-speed wobbling was scary. I will say this airplane was a symbol of black pride and success! Our audiences have always been mixed when we started we were told by of all people Fats Domino that if you want to be successful and you are black you got to figure out a way to get in The teenagers record collection. That’s why we did the TAMI show back in I think it was 1964. We were looking for a hairdresser for Mr. Brown at our hotel and the only thing we could come up with was a gay black hairdresser who did predominantly old white women’s hair. He decided to give Mr. Brown a woman’s hairstyle and it became a smash!

Mitsubishi only purchased the CRJ program from Bombardier. They didn't buy the entire Bombardier company. Bombardier still owns the Learjet brand and is responsible for parts supply for the Lears still in service but they are outsourcing all the parts they can instead of continuing producing those parts.

Took a new job at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

@@richd8537 Isn't Museum of Flight Seattle closed?

@@gmcjetpilot Don't know because I am on the East Coast, but they put out a 2019 press release that said they hired him.

@@richd8537 Yep. Seattle, Museum of Flight is associated with Boeing and is on Boeing Field Proper. I know it well. Use to live in Seattle. That is still open currently, and recall the notice Matt was new Senior Curator late 2019. I was mixing it up with the Flying Heritage & Combat Museum also in Seattle, founded by the late Paul Allen. It closed in May 2020 and still closed until further notice. Both totally worth a visit, when Flying Heritage reopens. Museum of Flight at Boeing Field since 1965 went through major updating in the 90's I recall. First class.

All those jets were built for military use. Learjet was the first production jet SOLELY for business.

@@herkloader34 You appear to forget the Bae 125.

@@herkloader34 I collect brochures for PJs have quite a few 125 brochures before its demise from the BAE then Raytheon until Beech Craft days.Those guys always sent them .

In reality, whatever the metrics you use, Bombardier got way less subsidies than its competitors (Embraer, Boeing, Airbus etc).