in 1990 founded 1962 1 headquarters wichita kansas website www.learjet.com learjet is a canadian owned american manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use . founded in the late 1950s by william powell lear as swiss american aviation corporation it has been a subsidiary of canadian bombardier aerospace since 1990 which markets it as the bombardier learjet family . contents 1 history 1.1 merger with gates aviation 1.2 acquisition by bombardier 1.3 location 2 records 3 aircraft 4 aircraft in production 5 aircraft no longer in production 6 aircraft cancelled 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history edit the company s first aircraft the pioneering learjet 23 learjet was one of the first companies to manufacture a private luxury aircraft . in the 1940s with world war ii still fresh in the public s mind lear s preliminary design was based upon an experimental american military aircraft known as the marvel substituting fuselage mounted turbojet engines for ducted fan turboshaft engines . 2 however that preliminary design was abandoned and the final learjet design was instead adapted from an abortive 1950s swiss ground attack fighter aircraft the ffa p 16 . 3 the basic structure of the swiss p 16 aircraft was seen by bill lear and his team as a good starting point to the development of a business jet and formed the swiss american aircraft corporation located in altenrhein switzerland and staffed with design engineers from switzerland germany and britain . the aircraft was originally intended to be called the saac 23 . or at one time the tina jet . the wing with its distinctive tip fuel tanks and landing gear of the first learjets were little changed from those used by the fighter prototypes . although building the first jet started in switzerland the tooling for building the aircraft was moved to wichita kansas in 1962 . bill jr stated that it took too long to get anything done in switzerland despite the cheaper labor costs . 4 learjet was in a temporary office which opened in september 1962 while the plant at wichita s airport was under construction . on february 7 1963 assembly of the first learjet began . the next year the company was renamed the lear jet corporation . the original learjet 23 was a six to eight seater and first flew on october 7 1963 with the first production model being delivered in october 1964 . just over a month later lear jet became a publicly owned corporation . several derived models followed with the model 24 first flying on february 24 1966 and the model 25 first flying on august 12 1966 . on september 19 of the same year the company was renamed lear jet industries inc. merger with gates aviation edit on april 10 1967 bill lear s approximately 60 % share of the venture was acquired by the gates rubber company of denver colorado for us 27 000 000 . lear remained on the company board until april 2 1969 when the company was merged with gates aviation corporation and was renamed gates learjet corporation . in 1971 the first model 25 powered by a garrett tfe731 2 turbofan engine was flown . this aircraft later became the successful learjet 35 . that year the company was awarded the president s e award for promoting export sales . in 1974 the worldwide learjet fleet had exceeded the one million flight hours mark and in 1975 the company produced its 500th jet both industry firsts . by late 1976 the company increased monthly aircraft production to ten . on august 24 1977 the learjet 28 made its first flight . it was based on the learjet 25 but received a completely new wing fitted with winglets . these resulted in both improved performance and fuel economy and inspired the name longhorn for the short lived learjet 28 29 and for some of the more successful models that followed . on april 19 1979 the prototype for the model 54 55 56 series made its first flight and on july 7 1983 a standard production model 55 set six new time to climb records for its weight class . in 1984 gates learjet announced the start of their aerospace division a high technology endeavor . however by the end of the year the company had ceased production of its commercial jets in an effort to reduce inventories . this lasted until february 1986 when the company headquarters were transferred to tucson arizona and production was restarted both in wichita and tucson . on september 10 1985 the aerospace division was awarded a contract to produce parts for the space shuttle s main engines . in 1987 gates learjet was acquired by integrated acquisition and the next year the name was changed to learjet corporation . by january 1989 all production had been moved from the tucson facility back to wichita with an employment of 1 250 . 5 acquisition by bombardier edit in 1990 canadian company bombardier aerospace purchased the learjet corporation . the aircraft were then marketed as the bombardier learjet family . on october 10 1990 the learjet 60 mid sized aircraft had its first flight followed on october 7 1995 by the learjet 45 . in october 2007 bombardier learjet launched a brand new aircraft program the learjet 85 . it was the first far part 25 all composite business aircraft . bombardier celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first flight by a learjet with 2008 s year of learjet campaign . one of its highlights was british formula one racing driver lewis hamilton racing a learjet and winning an event at the farnborough air show . 6 on october 28 2015 bombardier announced cancellation of the learjet 85 program . 7 location edit learjet started off in wichita kansas which has over 3 200 employees . 8 wichita was not the only candidate for the location of lear s project . grand rapids michigan and ohio were also both locations that were being considered . 8 kansas had something that the other two states did not . there were already a few other aircraft companies that were located in kansas which meant there were many more potential workers that would possess the skills that lear needed to run his company in the design and manufacturing of the aircraft . 8 if that was not enough incentive to choose kansas as the primary location lear was offered an industrial revenue bond of 1.2 million us dollars . 8 this would be known as the first historical industrial revenue bond offered by the city . 8 to this day the learjet facility is still located in wichita kansas and is currently getting ready to be renovated by expanding the flight test center and building a new center for delivery . 9 records edit a learjet held the previous speed record for the journey from los angeles to washington d.c. at 4 hours 12 minutes which was succeeded by the lockheed sr 71 at 64 minutes . 10 aircraft edit learjet 45 of gama aviation lear jet 1962 1969 gates learjet 1969 1988 learjet 1988 1990 bombardier learjet since 1990 aircraft in production edit learjet 40 02 13 shorter 45 learjet 45 95 13 new design 2 tfe731 learjet 70 75 13 . . improved 45 aircraft no longer in production edit learjet 23 62 66 first learjet ge cj 610 turbojets learjet 24 66 77 higher mtow version learjet 25 66 82 24 stretch learjet 28 29 77 82 25 new wing learjet 31 87 03 28 29 35 36 fuselage and engines learjet 35 36 73 94 25 tfe731 turbofans learjet 55 81 90 28 29 wing larger fuselage 2 tfe731 learjet 60 91 12 longer 55 2 pw300 turbofans aircraft cancelled edit learjet 85 14 14 composite new design 2 pw300 learjet 23 62 66 learjet 24 66 77 learjet 25 66 82 learjet 35 36 73 94 learjet 28 29 77 82 learjet 55 81 90 learjet 31 87 03 learjet 60 91 12 learjet 45 95 13 learjet 40 02 13 learjet 70 75 13 . . learjet 85 14 14 see also edit canadair de havilland canada learavia lear fan learstar 600 never produced by learjet and designs sold to canadair and became canadair challenger 600 references edit bombardier inc. encyclop dia britannica condon peter . flying the classic learjet . dorval condon . 2007 . georges bridel verkehrshaus der schweiz luzern 1975 isbn 3 85954 902 2 . frickler john . switzerland s p 16 father of the learjet . air international march 1991 vol . 40 no. 3 pp. 139 146 . lair progress 23 . february 1989 . missing or empty title help bbc news uk lewis hamilton races lear jet 1 a b c d e gross peggy . february 21 2013 . learjet 50 years bombardier aerospace wichita kansas . mekhail natasha . learjet grows wichita site and workforce . experience canada . january 10th 2013 81 . spafax inc. print . leland r. haynes sr 71 972 final record flight to dulles field washington d.c. sr 71 blackbirds revised march 29 2004 . external links edit kansas portal companies portal aviation portal bombardier learjet website wings over kansas learjet timeline year of learjet website learjet 85 website wikimedia commons has media related to learjet . v t e learjet aircraft civil 23 24 25 28 29 31 35 36 40 45 54 55 56 60 70 75 85 military c 21 v t e bombardier aircraft turboprop aircraft 415 dash 8 learjet family 23 24 25 28 29 31 35 36 c 21a 40 45 55 60 70 75 85 challenger family 300 600 601 604 605 800 850 global family global 5000 global express global express xrs global 7000 global 8000 crj family crj100 crj200 crj440 crj700 crj900 crj1000 cseries cs100 cs300 uavs cl 327 see also canadair de havilland canada learjet short brothers retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title learjet & oldid 741845801 categories learjet aircraftdefunct aircraft manufacturers of the united statesbombardier inc. acquisitionsmanufacturing companies based in kansascompanies based in wichita kansasmanufacturing companies established in 1962manufacturing companies disestablished in 19901962 establishments in kansas1990 disestablishments in kansasdefunct companies based in kansashidden categories pages with citations lacking titlescommons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main 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