Lear today, gone tomorrow!
End of the line for the luxury jet beloved by wealthy stars
AS perhaps the ultimate flight of fancy, nothing said you’d made it to the top like a Learjet. But after 58 years in production the 530mph status symbol is being axed – as the super-rich demand even bigger private jets with longer ranges.
After it came into service in 1963, Learjet quickly became a byword for luxury and excess, allowing stars and company presidents to attend meetings in Madrid, aperitifs in Paris and supper in Stockholm all in one day.
One of Frank Sinatra’s hits, Come Fly With Me, is said to have been inspired by the $495,000 Learjet he bought in 1965.
He used his six-seater to woo actress – and future wife – Mia Farrow by flying her from Los Angeles to his Palm Springs home. Sinatra also gave it to Elvis so he could elope to Las Vegas in 1967. The Learjet made it into the lyrics of the 1972 Carly Simon hit You’re So Vain as well as the Pink Floyd song Money.
The Canadian firm Bombardier, which makes the plane in Wichita, Kansas, said the jet had fallen out of favour, so it was switching to more profitable models.
The brainchild of Bill Lear, a high school dropout and self-taught investor, the Learjet was based on a prototype of a Swiss fighter.
It could be configured to allow up to eight passengers to travel in luxury – although they couldn’t stand upright in its compact cabin. But in recent years the Learjet went out of fashion as celebrities began buying bigger planes such as the Gulfstream, which Tom Cruise flies.
Bombardier was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and cut 2,500 jobs last year. Even though demand came back in late 2020 it never recovered for the Learjet, with production down to around just one a month.
Bombardier chief executive Eric Martel said: ‘With more than 3,000 aircraft delivered since its entry into service, the iconic Learjet aircraft has had a remarkable and lasting impact on business aviation.
‘Passengers all over the world love to fly this exceptional aircraft and count on its unmatched performance and reliability.
‘However, given the increasingly challenging market dynamics, we have made this difficult decision to end Learjet production.’
The company now plans to concentrate on more profitable models, such as the Global, which is used by US chat show star Oprah Winfrey, and the Challenger, one of which is owned by millionaire rapper Jay-Z.