Aviation Pioneer, Inventor. He is best known for introducing the Learjet - the world's first mass-produced business jet. Despite his eighth-grade education, Lear held more than 150 patents. He is credited with inventing the car radio, the eight-track stereo tape player and cartridges, the autopilot for jet aircraft, the navigational radio, and the radio direction-finder for general aviation aircraft. He was born William Powell Lear on June 26, 1902, in Hannibal, Missouri. He was an only child; his parents separated when he was 6. He ran away from home after eighth grade, lied about his age, and joined the Navy, but did not like the regimentation and received an early discharge. In 1919, Lear became a mechanic at Grant Park Airport in Chicago, servicing many of the first air-mail planes. He occasionally wrangled a free death-defying ride and regularly hung out with his heroes, the daring young pilots who flew the U.S. mail. To put his self-taught knowledge of radios to work, Lear formed the first of a string of companies. He was President of Quincy Radio Laboratory in Quincy, Illinois, from 1922 to 1924; President of Lear Radio Laboratory in Tulsa from 1924 to 1928; and part-owner of Radio Coil and Wire Co. and Galvin Manufacturing Co., both of Chicago, from 1926 to 1930. About this time, Lear developed the first car radio at Galvin, which was to become the Motorola Corporation. Motorola successfully mass-produced the car radio and went on to become a major manufacturer of consumer electronics. In 1930, Lear sold his radio interests and founded Lear Developments, which became Lear Inc. and later Lear Siegler Inc. These companies specialized in aerospace instruments and electronics. In 1935, Lear invented the Lear-O-Scope, one of the first commercial radio compasses. He received the Frank M. Hawks Award for designing the Learmatic Navigator in 1940. In 1950, President Harry Truman gave Lear the Collier Trophy for development of the F-5 autopilot, the first ever for U.S. military jets. The city of Paris presented Lear its Great Silver Medal for his aid in developing the autopilot for the Caravelle Jetliner in 1962. By 1962, his company, headquartered in Santa Monica, had 5,000 employees and plants in California, Germany, Michigan, and Ohio. Company officials had a major falling-out with Lear and bought him out for $14.3 million. Lear had previously envisioned a small, fast, and cheap business jet, and now he had the time and money to pursue it. Lear started the design work in Switzerland, and then decided in 1962 to build the new Learjet in Wichita, Kansas. The city agreed to help finance Learjet Corp. and issued its first-ever industrial revenue bonds. Lear set up shop next to Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and began working on the first Learjet Model 23, a simple, sturdy seven-seat business jet that would fly 500 mph. On June 4, 1964, during a routine certification flight, the first Learjet crashed and burned in a cornfield after takeoff without injuring the test pilot. The crash investigation attributed the cause to human error. Another Learjet was built and certified by the FAA just nine months after the crash. By late 1966, despite hard work and devoted employees, and the successful introduction of the Learjet, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, partly because Lear had expanded too fast into new product lines. The company had built 146 Learjets before Lear sold out to the Denver- based Gates Rubber Co. on April 10, 1967. Although Learjet was about $13 million in debt at the time of the sale, Lear eventually cleared about $18 million from the sale. In 1968, Lear bought the old Stead Air Force Base at Reno, Nevada, for $1.3 million and established LearAvia Corp. He designed the Learstar 600, a 12-seat business jet. Canadair bought the manufacturing rights and renamed it the Challenger. Lear was working on the Model 2100 Learfan, a radical seven-passenger plane with two turboprop engines powering a propeller on the tail, when he died of leukemia on May 14, 1978. In private life, Lear married four times, the last time to Moya Olsen Lear in 1942, who is the mother of four of his seven children. Despite Lear's well-known womanizing, they stayed married for 36 years. At the time of his death, Lear's personal fortune was estimated at $75 million. Moya Lear now runs LearAvia, Leareno, and is on the board of directors of Lear Fan. Lear was posthumously inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, on July 22, 1978.