I think if the Lears had been SP, the company would still be producing jets today. Time just ran away from cramped 2-pilot business jets.

SP owners would embrace a tight tube, but customers want flat floors and standup cabins. That's all they talk about these days when they launch a new one - the cabin size. They're already complaining about the upcoming G300 not having a flat floor.

Adam nailed it. Cabin and range. There is no patience in the market for small tubes with 2 big guys up front.

Sounds like my first ever jet takeoff in the JetStar II. Prior to the JetStar, the fastest aircraft I’d flown was a King Air B200. On my first takeoff in the JetStar II, we were about 9-10,000 lbs. under MTOW on a cool day. As soon as we were airborne, had positive rate of climb, and the gear was coming up, the instructor idled the outboard engines. In that configuration, I was able to keep up with the plane… barely.

Greg

Lears were fast and had a flat floor. After that, there’s not much to recommend it. Did I mention it was fast? Pretty much a one trick pony.

Trying to make the Lear SP from the beginning might have doomed the company; as it was, 23 of the first 101 Lears built had crashed in the first 3 years. Overall 1 in 8 Lears had fatal accidents, and all those were with 2 crew.

When the Lear came out in 1964 all the movie stars had to have one or be seen in one. From an operator stand point, the dispatch reliability was a very strong point. Dirt simple systems , including the GE CJ-610 engines. The plane was famous for it's brakes. Our Lear 24 never let us down, nor did our 35, but the 35 was in the shop more for scheduled maintenance.

The "small tube" wasn't much of a deterrent to sales, as the Citation came out with almost exactly the same cabin dimensions and was quite successful. Cabins got bigger when buyers could justify the increased cost, but the small tube will never go away, i.e. the Citation Mustang and Cirrus Vision Jet.

If they had been single pilot, maybe half the pilots wouldn't have died.

I am reminded of the Lear at KTEB. The SIC was essentially murdered by the PIC.

Mike C.

If they had been single pilot, maybe half the pilots wouldn't have died.

I am reminded of the Lear at KTEB. The SIC was essentially murdered by the PIC.

Mike C.

Don’t forget the Lear 24 overrun at Catalina island years ago.
Went off the end and instead of using the emergency release they tried to open normally and electric door motor ignited the fuel and all died.

Out of curiosity what modern quiet engines could hypothetically work on a 23?

Same thrust and weight just quieter.

And with modern avionics and allowing single pilot how much weight could be saved?

Are the new designs better or worse if the above items were changed.

Would the early Lear have more useful load, better range, simpler systems than a Phenom or Citation.

I always thought there'd be a whole cottage industry and slew of STC's upgrading old jets to SP. The Beech 400, the Lears, the IAI Westwinds etc would all be good candidates. In my mind, you'd just re-certify the STC based on a completely new panel, move critical items to the pilots side, lean a bit more on automation and voila - Bob's your uncle. I don't see why it couldn't be done.

But obviously, none of that has happened, so there has to be a reason.

A few years back I gave several pilots a proficiency check in a Lear 25 equipped with a pair of Williams FJ44-2C turbofans in Guthrie, OK.

It was very fuel efficient and an interesting project, but not simply an engine swap. The pylons had to be relocated and several important things moved around in the back end. Had it been done much earlier it might have resurrected many old airframes.

It would be infinitely easier to single-handedly shove about 9 yards of wet string up a very angry wildcat's rectum than get all those airplanes you mentioned modified and certified for single pilot operations. If you really, really wanted to do the string thing at least it is remotely possible.

It's nice and all, and it waxes poetic, but IMO It's not a true Lear 23 if you can't hear it taking off from a few miles away and see a plume of black smoke trailing.