Learjet

Learjet was a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military customers, based in Wichita, Kansas, in the United States. It began in the late 1950s as the Swiss American Aviation Corporation, founded by William Powell Lear, whose design for a fast private jet was adapted from the Swiss FFA P-16 ground-attack fighter. The tooling moved from Switzerland to Wichita in 1962, and the first Learjet 23 flew on 7 October 1963. The company was renamed several times, becoming Gates Learjet after a merger in 1969 and Learjet Corporation in 1988. Bombardier Aerospace bought it in 1990 and marketed its aircraft as the Bombardier Learjet Family. The 3,000th Learjet was delivered in June 2017, Bombardier announced the end of Learjet production in February 2021, and the last aircraft, a Learjet 75, was delivered on 28 March 2022.