William Powell Lear was an American aeronautical engineer, entrepreneur, and inventor. He was a founder of Lear Incorporated, a company specializing in aerospace instruments and electronics.
Background
William Powell Lear was born in Hannibal, Missouri, United States, the son of Reuben Lear, a carpenter, and Gertrude Elizabeth Powell. Lear was raised in an abusive, broken home; in 1913 his mother moved with him to Chicago, where she married Otto Kirmse.
Education
Lear studied at Englewood High School.
Career
Lear was fascinated by electronics and airplanes and dropped out the school in 1919 to work at an airplane hangar in Grant Park. The following year he left Chicago for the West Coast, taking odd jobs on the way. Regular work proved hard to find, so in September 1920, Lear joined the United States Navy and was sent to the Great Lakes Training Station north of Chicago to study radio. Discharged six months later because of manpower cutbacks, Lear began working for Western Union as a teletype operator. His first business venture was Quincy Radio Laboratories, which in 1922 began manufacturing and servicing single-tube radios.
Lear continued his interest in aviation; having relocated to Oklahoma, in 1925 he built his first aircraft from a kit, a one-seater Lincoln Sport. After returning to Chicago, center of the American radio industry, Lear became a consultant to several radio manufacturers, helping them overcome technical problems. By 1928 he was again manufacturing radios, with his nine-tube design incorporating many of his theories. Lear also began to develop a design for an inexpensive car radio, which resulted in his first patent. The radio was marketed by Galvin Manufacturing Company in 1930 under the name Motorola and was an immediate success.
Lear now formed his second company, Lear-Wuerfel, with another engineer, Bob Wuerfel. By 1931 he was a sought-after radio engineer. He indulged his interest in aircraft, and as a result of his flying experience became intrigued with the problems of aerial radio receiving and navigation. He dissolved Lear-Wuerfel and opened Lear Developments in July 1931 at the Curtiss-Reynolds Airport in Glenview, Ill. , to manufacture airplane receivers for navigation. Short of capital to fund his interest in radio navigation, Lear in 1934 adapted turret-type tuners for use in radios. He sold the idea to RCA for $50, 000 cash and $40, 000 per year for five years, money that was used to underwrite Lear Developments.
In January 1935, Lear Developments unveiled the radio direction finder, the Learoscope. Since domestic sales were sluggish, Lear attempted to sell his devices to foreign governments, including Japan, but was blocked by the State Department. Fighting off takeover offers from Bendix Corporation, he moved to Roosevelt Field in Mineola, New York, in 1938, broke with his partners, and set up Lear Radio, where a work force of forty assembled receivers, transmitters, and direction finders.
In 1939, Lear patented fifteen new inventions, among them automatic trailing antennas and an automatic direction finder, ADF-6, a device so sophisticated that it could be used for blind landings. Lear now expanded his company with new investors, changed its name to Lear Avia, and moved his base of operations to the Vandalia airport, ten miles north of Dayton, Ohio. His factory soon employed 300 workers working in four continuous shifts. By 1940, Lear Avia was flourishing, with annual sales of $912, 000. The war in Europe would help Lear further expand his business; research and development offices were opened in New York City and Hollywood. The following year Lear Avia submitted fourteen patent applications to the government; among them were a number of designs for airplane electromechanical devices that incorporated the "fastop" clutch for controlling wing and aileron surfaces, replacing the hydraulic systems then in use. Sales of Lear Avia products went up 60 percent in 1941, to $1. 6 million; and by 1945 the company employed 4, 000 people.
At the end of the war, Lear bought out his partners, moved the company to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and renamed it Lear Incorporated. At the same time he took it public with an initial share offering of 450, 000 priced at $5 each. The deal made Lear a multimillionaire. Lear's biggest interest in the postwar era was designing a true autopilot. The United States Air Force awarded Lear Incorporated a $128, 000 development grant; Lear delivered the C-2 prototype in early 1947. A second design for the F-80 jet, the F-5, was developed the same year. The contract subsequently awarded to Lear Incorporated for a modified F-5 was worth nearly $1 billion over the next twelve years, as the mechanism was installed in all American combat aircraft. Another Lear success was the VGI (Vertical Gyro Indicator), installed in all American military aircraft. Lear sales by 1954 climbed to $54 million.
Lear now entered aircraft production; his Learstar was a modified Lockheed Lodestar design, which flew at 300 miles per hour and had a cruising range of 3, 800 miles. On a personal level, in 1956 he became the first private pilot from the West to fly into Moscow. Lear's interest in aircraft production induced him to begin thinking about building an aircraft of his own design, the SAAC-23, which would eventually emerge as the Lear Jet. In order to invest in the aircraft's design and production, Lear in 1962 sold his shares and interests in Lear Incorporated for approximately $12. 5 million; the agreement also allowed him to keep the Lear Jet name, which would be developed under the aegis of his new company, Lear Jet Corporation.
Lear now moved his base of operations to Wichita, Kansas, having negotiated a generous development package with the city. He budgeted $12 million for the development of the first Lear Jet prototype. The production line was to move directly into production tooling, rather than waiting for modifications to the prototype before beginning production. Lear's contributions to the project were especially marked in the electronics and avionics designs. On October 7, 1963, Lear Jet 801-L made its maiden flight, and performed flawlessly. On July 31, 1964, the Lear Jet received its FAA certification. The aircraft was an immediate success as the first commercially produced business jet; by June 1965 the company had orders for more than 100 aircraft at $600, 000 apiece. Other jet designs were quickly developed.
Lear did not rest on his laurels; the same year, he invented the eight-track car stereo player, which was immediately franchised by Ford and RCA Victor. By 1967, cash flow problems forced Lear to sell his company. His next interest was an environmentally advanced steam-powered automobile engine. Lear now formed Lear Motors to research the project. Despite innumerable setbacks, Lear in June 1970 signed a contract with California to develop a steam-powered bus. Two years later, the California Steam Bus Project declared the prototype a success. It predicted that with adequate funding a general-use steam engine would be ready for use within a decade. The funding was not forthcoming from either the government or the private sector, however, and Lear was forced to abandon the project by 1975.
Lear turned again to aircraft design; his proposed Learstar 600 was a turbofan jet aircraft with a projected speed of 600 miles per hour, a range of 4, 000 miles, and a passenger capacity of fourteen. The plane's revolutionary design incorporated extensive use of epoxy resin composites, greatly reducing the aircraft's weight. While the design was never built, Lear used the experience to design a composites-based twinpropeller aircraft, the Lear Fan. Lear never saw the Lear Fan fly, however; his health began to fail. In early 1978 he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. He died in Reno, Nevada. His family scattered his ashes over the Pacific.
Achievements
Connections
In 1922 Lear married Ethel Peterson. They had two children, one of whom died in infancy. On October 4, 1926, after obtaining a divorce, he married Madeline Murphy; they had two children and were divorced in 1931.
In 1936 he married Margaret Radell, who divorced him within eighteen months. He set up trust funds for three of his children but made no provisions for his daughter Mary Louise, from whom he was estranged. On January 5, 1942, he married Moya Marie Olsen. They had four children.