William Powell Lear (June 26, 1902 – May 14, 1978) was an American inventor and businessman. He is best known for founding Learjet, a manufacturer of

business jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pu ...

s. He also invented the battery eliminator for the

B battery A generic triode vacuum tube circuit showing "A", "B" and "C" batteries">vacuum_tube.html" ;"title="triode vacuum tube">triode vacuum tube circuit showing "A", "B" and "C" batteries In the early days of electronics, vacuum tube (called ''valves' ...

, and developed the car radio and the

8-track cartridge The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, whi ...

, an audio tape system.Stim and Pressman 2007, p. 20. Throughout his career of 46 years, Lear received over 140 patents.

Career

Lear was born on June 26, 1902, in Hannibal, Missouri to Ruben Marion Lear, a carpenter, and Gertrude Elizabeth Powell Lear. His mother left his father and he stayed with his aunt, Gussie Bornhouser, in

Dubuque, Iowa Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a r ...

. Later, Otto Kirmse took him in and raised him as his stepson. The family relocated to Chicago where Lear attended Kershaw Grammar School. On Sundays, he attended the Moody Tabernacle (now Moody Church). "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.Boesen, Victor (1971) ''They Said It Couldn't Be Done: The Incredible Story of Bill Lear''. New York: Doubleday . While in Chicago, Lear was employed briefly at a local airfield. He spent one summer with his father in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

, 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. 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 Central High School is the oldest high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was founded in 1906 as Tulsa High School, and located in downtown Tulsa until 1976. The school now has a campus in northwest Tulsa. Tulsa Central is part of the Tulsa Public ...

, 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 Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

, including the works of

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; 1856 – 7 January 1943 ...

, 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 Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

, the fun ending with the ban on radio during World War I." One of his first ventures was with Lawrence Sorensen, selling "Loose Coupler" radios. 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 Quincy ( ), known as Illinois's "Gem City", is a city in and the county seat of Adams County, Illinois, United States, located on the Mississippi River. The 2020 census counted a population of 39,463 in the city itself, down from 40,633 in 2010. ...

. 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. In 1924, he moved to Chicago and built a B- battery eliminator for the Universal Battery Company with R. D. Morey. He met Waldorf Astoria Smith of the Carter Radio Company who helped him with radio theory including

Ohm's law Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equa ...

. Tom Fletcher of the QRS Company was so impressed by Lear's radio set designed around a QRS

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an inve ...

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 a problem with 60,000 B-battery eliminators that they had manufactured. He came up with an invention in 1924 when

power inverter A power inverter, inverter or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the opp ...

s installed at Stevens Hotel failed to perform for the Radio Manufacturers' Association. Lear also built audio amplifiers and cases for

Magnavox Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics company that since 1974 has been a subsidiary of the Dutch electronics corporation Philips. The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and ...

speakers. The Magnavox "majestic dynamic speakers" that he produced with Grunow were very popular. Lear pioneered an early step toward

miniaturization Miniaturization ( Br.Eng.: ''Miniaturisation'') is the trend to manufacture ever smaller mechanical, optical and electronic products and devices. Examples include miniaturization of mobile phones, computers and vehicle engine downsizing. In el ...

in electronics. Tuning coils in the

radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the up ...

stage of a set were rather large; Lear reduced their size by using

Litz wire Litz wire is a particular type of multistrand wire or cable used in electronics to carry alternating current (AC) at radio frequencies. The wire is designed to reduce the skin effect and proximity effect losses in conductors used at frequencie ...

, braided from many fine strands to create a large surface area, giving it high conductivity at radio frequency. Lear borrowed $5,000 from his friend Algot Olson to build 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 run with assistance of Don Mitchell, a railroad electrician. Lear called the company Radio Coil and Wire Corporation. Eugene F. McDonald of

Zenith Electronics Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer e ...

ordered 50,000 coils, which were one-quarter the size of coils made with solid wire. Lear traded his Radio Coil business for one-third interest in Paul Galvin's Galvin Manufacturing Company. At that time the radio had not yet been developed for use in automobiles. Lear worked with his friend Elmer Wavering to build the first car radio. Lear partnered with Howard Gates of Zenith; Lear designed the circuit and layout, Gates did the metal work, and Lear completed the assembly. Galvin initially dismissed the prototype, but later ordered a 200-unit production run. Galvin and Lear mulled over names for the product on a cross-country trip and came up with "Motorola", which was a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsVictrola"). The product was such a success that Galvin changed the name of his entire company to

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

Aviation

In 1931, Lear bought his first aircraft, a Fleet

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a ...

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 Avionics (a blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, and the hundreds of systems that are fit ...

products. Lear founded Lear Developments, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics.Zhito, Lee
"Lear: Wizard of the Cartridge Age."
''Billboard'', Volume 17, Issue 16, April 17, 1965, p. 6. Lear developed

radio direction finder Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio stati ...

s, autopilots, and the first fully automatic aircraft landing system. He was awarded the

Collier Trophy The Robert J. Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautic Association (NAA), presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to ...

for this contribution in 1949. Lear also developed and marketed a line of panel-mounted radios for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

. His "LearAvian" series of portable radios, which incorporated

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 Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

. In 1960, Lear moved to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and founded the Swiss American Aviation Company (SAAC). The company's goal was to redesign the

FFA P-16 The FFA P-16 was a Swiss prototype ground attack jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein (FFA). It was Switzerland's second attempt to develop a domestically designed and manufactured jet f ...

jet fighter—a project that had been abandoned after two crashes during test flights—into a small business jet, the SAAC 23. During the brief existence of SAAC, King Michael I of Romania met Lear and agreed to work as a test pilot for the Swiss part of the company. This was during the king's forced

exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

, which lasted for 50 years until 1997. Learjet 25 der NASA

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 resulting company was thereafter known as Lear Siegler. Lear next moved to

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

, to manufacture the converted SAAC 23 design. In October 1963, Lear Jet started test flights on the

Learjet 23 The Learjet 23 (originally Lear Jet 23) is an American six-to-eight-seat (two crew and four to six passengers) twinjet, high-speed business jet manufactured by Learjet. Introduced in 1964, it was Learjet's first model and created a new market ...

, the first mass-produced

. 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 Corporation to the Gates Rubber Company in 1967 due to other financial losses. In the early 1970s, Lear backed the Foxjet ST600 with its first order. The

Very Light Jet A very light jet (VLJ), entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small business jets seating four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operati ...

project failed, but the VLJ concept became popular again 30 years later. In 1976, Lear sold an option to his LearStar concept to

Canadair Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc. Canadair's origins lie in the establishm ...

, a

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

aircraft manufacturer. The idea was to design an executive aircraft which would bring together a supercritical wing with Lycoming's new

turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...

engine. However, the concept was only a very rough outline, prepared by a consultant. 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 Lear's concept, and Lear had no role in its development. Nevertheless, the

Canadair Challenger The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets developed by Canadair after a Bill Lear concept, and then produced from 1986 by its new owner, Bombardier Aerospace. At the end of 1975, Canadair began funding the developmen ...

business jet was to have a long career, with several variants. Bombardier Aerospace, by that time the parent company of

, 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 material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s, instead of the more typical aluminum alloys. The Lear Fan was ultimately never completed; at the time of his death Lear asked 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.

Other notable inventions

Lear developed the 8-track tape music cartridge in 1964. Lear's invention was an improvement on the four track

Muntz Stereo-Pak The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 3-track tape cartridge system invented by George Eash in 1954 and u ...

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. The Lear Jet Stereo 8 Division offered home, auto, and portable versions. A popular theory is that Learjets also included an 8-track players. In 1965, a partnership between Ford, RCA, and Lear offered the first pre-recorded 8-track music cartridges. RCA released the first Stereo 8 Tape Cartridges in September 1965, issuing 175 titles. In 1968, Lear started work on a closed circuit steam turbine to power cars and buses. He 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 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are fully or partly halogenated hydrocarbons that contain carbon (C), hydrogen (H), chlorine (Cl), and fluorine (F), produced as volatile derivatives of methane, ethane, and p ...

similar to DuPont Freon. A prototype racing car was built to enter the 1969 Indianapolis 500, the Lear Vapordyne. The car never entered the race and never ran at competitive speeds.

Personal life

Marriages and children

* With his first wife, Ethel Peterson Lear, daughter Mary Louise was born in January 1925. * He married his second wife, Madeline Murphy, in October 1926. Their son, William Lear Jr., was born on May 24, 1928. Daughter Patti was born on June 26, 1929. * Lear's third marriage, in February 1936, to Margaret Jane Radell, was childless. * In 1941, Lear married his fourth wife, Moya Marie Olsen. They had four children together: John Lear, Shanda, David and Tina. Lear had a reputation for being difficult. The 75-year-old Lear died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

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

Tributes and honors

In 1944, Harry Bruno included William P. Lear in a list of 87 "all-time greats in American aviation ... hogambled their necks, their brains and their money – that aviation might grow." * 1949,

for F-5 autopilot * 1954, member Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans * 1967, appeared as himself in the film

In Like Flint ''In Like Flint'' is a 1967 American spy fi comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas, the sequel to the parody spy film ''Our Man Flint'' (1966). It posits an international feminist conspiracy to depose the ruling American patriarchy with a fem ...

* 1972,

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. The ...

* 1972, Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...

* 1974, Tony Jannus Award for his distinguished contributions to aviation. * 1978,

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with it ...

"William Powell Lear, Sr."
''National Aviation Hall of Fame.'' Retrieved: April 6, 2011. * 1981,

International Air & Space Hall of Fame The International Air & Space Hall of Fame is an honor roll of people, groups, organizations, or things that have contributed significantly to the advancement of aerospace flight and technology, sponsored by the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Si ...

* 1993,

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also oper ...

* 2003, Hannibal Municipal Airport was renamed the Hannibal Regional Airport, William P. Lear Field in his honor. * 2020, The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Museum of Flight a $236,000 grant to process and digitize the collected papers of William P. Lear and Moya Olsen Lear over a 2-year period.

Notes

References

* Logie, Stuart. ''Winging it: The Making of Canadair's Challenger.'' Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Canada. 1992. . * Rashke, Richard. ''Stormy Genius: The Life of Aviation's Maverick, Bill Lear''. Boston:

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

Co., 1985. . * Stim, Richard and David Pressman
"Patent Pending in 24 Hours."
Berkeley, California: Nolo, 2007. .

External links

The William P. and Moya Olsen Lear Papers
at The Museum of Flight (Seattle, Wash.).
William Powell Lear, Sr. at the National Aviation Hall of Fame

William P. Lear, 1954 Horatio Alger Award
from Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. *
W P Lear Sr. at IMDB.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lear, Bill 1902 births 1978 deaths Burials at sea American aerospace engineers American aviation businesspeople Bombardier Inc. People from Hannibal, Missouri National Aviation Hall of Fame inductees 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors Inventors from Missouri