This eliminated a troublesome bottleneck in Wichita that slowed output. During those years, Gates Learjet developed several new aircraft, including the fanjet-powered Models 35 and 36, and Century III series, which featured improved "Softflite" wing leading edges. In April, the Models 24 and 25 were certified to fly at 51, feet, well above weather and all but military air traffic.
The Longhorn Models 28 and 29 featured longer wings and vertical wingtip fences known as winglets that improved lift and maneuverability.
These new models were the first Learjets without wing tanks. Bill Lear, who founded two large companies, received patents, and was instrumental in the development of modern avionics and business jets, died of leukemia in a Reno, Nevada, hospital on May 14, Although no longer associated with Lear-Siegler or Gates Learjet, his name remained with both companies, and his innovations continued to be in wide use in the aviation industry.
Bill Lear's last business aircraft venture continued after his death. The all-composite Lear Fan, which he had conceived several years earlier, flew in In the months that followed, Gates Learjet added five new service facilities overseas and purchased the Connecticut-based Air-Kaman service company.
Stillwell retired in and was succeeded by James B. Taylor, who took the helm of Gates Learjet at a time when "bizjet" sales had fallen so much that Learjet had to temporarily halt production. In August Gates received an offer for its Integrated Acquisition initially retained Taylor as head of the company. However, in January , after buying up all outstanding shares in Learjet, the partners fired Taylor in favor of Beverly Bev Lancaster, head of the company's growing aerospace division.
All of this work was conducted in Wichita, which was a significant factor in much of the Learjet production being transferred to Tucson. The company also discovered an important new market in military sales. Special versions of the Learjet 35 and 36 were built for the Brazilian, Thai, Japanese, Finnish, and Mexican military forces. Learjet also won a contract to service this fleet and created the Gates Learjet Aircraft Services Corporation Glasco for that purpose. Learjet was profitable but unable to secure loans because of its parent company's poor condition.
Nevertheless, in Learjet succeeded in acquiring the thrust reverser business of the Aeronea company, which it transferred from Middletown, Ohio, to Wichita. The addition of these devices to Learjet aircraft substantially reduced landing distances, enabling it the use of shorter runways. By Integrated had fallen under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
During this crisis, Brian Barents, a former marketing vice-president at Cessna and Toyota, was appointed president of Learjet. Within months he had negotiated Learjet's rescue by the Canadian manufacturing conglomerate Bombardier. Bombardier gained fame during the s as the manufacturer of Ski-Doo snowmobiles. With the passing of the snowmobile fad, the company expanded into the mass-transit railcar industry, buying out troubled manufacturers such as Pullman-Peabody, Budd, and UTDC.
In Bombardier took over the loss-ridden aircraft company Canadair at the time owned by the Canadian government and expanded its presence in the aerospace market in by acquiring Belfast-based Short Brothers Aviation.
The company bid for Learjet only one year later and in early purchased DeHavilland Canada from Boeing. The acquisition was favorably received. Learjet, with great manufacturing capacity and a strong customer base, could benefit from the stability provided by a financially strong parent company and manufacturing and marketing synergies with other Bombardier aerospace companies.
Bombardier had assembled a product line ranging from light business jets to large commuter aircraft. Like other Bombardier subsidiaries, Learjet remained an autonomous, independently managed unit. It occupied an important position in the company's product line, manufacturing jets for markets independent of those of its sister companies. Learjet's smaller models of aircraft provided a strong complement to the larger Canadair Challenger--which Bill Lear had also helped to develop.
Within the first three years of its purchase by Bombardier, Learjet experienced dramatic growth, doubling its number of employees and expanding its manufacturing capacity. Bombardier also moved the testing of all its subsidiaries' jets to Wichita. In late the Model 60, an eight to ten passenger mid-size jet with a range of nearly 2, miles, was introduced.
Sales were good, and was the company's best year ever, with delivery of over 40 airplanes. However, Learjet's corporate culture was undergoing changes during this time, which caused problems.
The company had been so vertically integrated that, as a former executive told Business and Commercial Aviation magazine, "Learjet [was] used to pushing in aluminum at one end [of the plant] and pulling airplanes out the other. Within several years Learjet fuselages were being manufactured by Short Brothers in Ireland, wings were assembled by DeHavilland in Canada, and only final assembly occurred in Wichita. Morale among both workers and top management began to slip as these changes took place.
In September the company announced plans for its first plane in 30 years to be a "clean sheet" design--one which was not a variation on an existing aircraft. The new plane was expected to offer mid-size comfort and features in a lighter jet, one that carried six to eight passengers. The new Model 45, like the original Model 23, was slated to make it to market in an astoundingly short period of time, in this case about three-and-a-half years from the inception of the design process.
However, a number of technical problems and a much-delayed FAA flight certification partially caused by new, more rigorous standards adopted by that agency resulted in a delay of over two years. During this time Learjet was still selling its other models of aircraft and doing relatively well, but the delay in launching the Model 45 further damaged morale, creating a "pressure cooker" environment for designers and executives at the company.
Facility has engineering on-site to support maintenance and modifications. Full refurbishment, completion and line service capabilities, including complete reconfiguration of full line service.
Tire replacement and NDT Non destructive testing inspection. Capability to touch-up, spot-in or sand-paint small parts or aircraft areas.
Avionics Full on-wing avionics capability including major mods and STCs, plus full line service. Criticism of the Learjet -- and these are very First Class problems -- included its 4'4" cabin height 1. This might have been fine for shorter s executives and celebrities, but isn't quite up to snuff today. Bill Lear, who died in , is reported to have had a famous response to the critique, though: "You can't stand up in a Cadillac, either.
In the s and into the early s, the purpose of business aviation was to save time and hassle for flights within a few hours' distance, jetting from smaller airfields closer to homes and offices rather than having to sit in traffic to get to the larger commercial airports and then connecting. For that, people were happy to make the tradeoff of essentially replicating a ride in a comfortable luxury towncar, but zipping through the sky. But as the global economy changed through the s, s and s, so did what private jets needed to do, on the outside and on the inside.
As the world became global, so did business aviation -- down to the name, with the s' Bombardier Global Express large business jet arriving on the scene. Rather than the original Learjet's sub-2,mile range, the latest jets can fly for more than 12 hours for over 6, miles, easily across the Pacific.
And if you're flying for 12 hours, and especially if you're paying the big bucks for it, you want to be comfortable. The business jet, says Mark Masluch from Bombardier, "went from this tool to get you point to point to, now, really an office, a workspace, or home space in the air where you can seamlessly enter the aircraft and carry on your day as if you were still on the ground.
Today's cabins are so big they have zones. Business jet cabins today mean "floating onto a jet, having a completely smooth ride," explains Masluch.
0コメント