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An icon is over: The Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier plans to stop production of the Learjet business jet brand in 2021.
Photo: Chad Slattery / Bombardier
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The Learjets, which have been built since 1963, have so far been synonymous with the exclusive luxury of business aviation.
Photo: picture-alliance / dpa
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The company was founded by the US designer
Bill Lear
(1902-1978), who had created innovations such as the first car radio or the airplane autopilot decades earlier.
The origin of Learjet was in St. Gallen, Lear founded the company together with the Swiss designer Hans-Luzius Studer (1907–1971).
After a few years, the company failed.
Lear made a fresh start in Wichita, Kansas.
Photo: Personalities / imago / United Archives International
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Despite several crashes, the fame of the fast, high-flying Learjets was founded in the 1960s with plenty of Hollywood glamor.
The fast wedding of
Elvis
and
Priscilla Presley
in Las Vegas in 1967 made a Learjet possible.
Photo: Bettmann / Bettmann Archive
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The machine belonged to Frank Sinatra, one of the first Learjet customers, who already fell in love with
Mia Farrow
in 1965
, allegedly by spontaneously picking it up from Los Angeles in his Learjet 23.
However, Sinatra's mother later died in a Learjet crash.
Photo: STRINGER / AFP
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"Go'n ride the Lear jet, baby", this line was actually enough for a pop song by
The Byrds
.
Photo: Keystone / Getty Images
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In addition to show business, Learjet primarily aimed at big business - and these worlds were not always so clearly distinguishable.
In the picture from 2016, Fiat heir
Lapo Elkann
(43)
poses
with the "Nel blu dipinto di blu" edition of a Learjet 31.
Photo: Guido De Bortoli / Getty Images
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Bombardier boss
Eric Martel
(53)
justified
the end of the jets
with the "increasingly challenging market dynamics"
.
1600 jobs are lost.
It wasn't until 2020 that Bombardier launched a new, more economical Learjet model.
However, this step in no way means an end to business aviation.
On the contrary.
Photo: Paul Bowen / Bombardier
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The Canadian group, which once started with snowmobiles and took over Learjet in 1990, focuses entirely on business jets: whether with the large Global brand machines with queen-size beds and hot showers on board ...
Photo: Christinne Muschi / REUTERS
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... or the lighter Challenger aircraft.
Bombardier has given up the larger branches of business as a mobility company: the construction of large commercial aircraft went to Airbus, the rail division to Alstom.
Photo: Johannes Eisele / AFP
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Business jets are booming, the corona crisis in particular has given a new boost: Without the restrictions on scheduled flights, many trips are still possible in private jets, since the low point in April 2020 private flights have more than tripled.
Those who do not have their own jet and can afford it run into operators like Netjets or Signature.
In January, the airport operator and infrastructure investor GIP, which operates London Gatwick among other things, outbid Bill Gates and Blackstone's takeover of the British company Signature with £ 3.4 billion.
Photo: izusek / Getty Images
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Bombardier is battling some major competitors in the market.
The US group Textron owns the brands Cessna (picture), Beechcraft and Hawker.
Photo: Cessna
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The Brazilian manufacturer Embraer wanted to take the radical step even before Bombardier: No more aircraft for the masses, focus on the lucrative business jets from brands like Phenom.
Unfortunately for the Brazilians, Boeing withdrew from the billion-dollar deal for large commercial aircraft in 2020.
Now Embraer has to find another buyer.
Photo: Embraer
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Another major player in the business is the US group General Dynamics with the Gulfstream brand, which - judging by the number of names it has in pop and hip-hop songs - promises a status similar to that of Learjet in the 1960s.
Photo: Gulfstream
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From France, the arms company Dassault is involved with its Falcon business jet brand.
This is also provided by Emmanuel Macron's presidential machine.
Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
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The large aircraft manufacturers Airbus (in the picture the inside view of an ACJ319) and Boeing have their own divisions for corporate jets, mostly of the larger type.
Photo: Airbus
ak