Ah, got you – I bought him a few drinks by way of thanks, but we never got to the reverse pint!
I got Stick and Rudder, so I am a real pilot now 
Please give my book a shot. It’s just $8.50 USD on Amazon and goes pretty fast, but is a little technical. Honestly, I really think it will help you learn some more advanced techniques that we only get in the military for engine loss events. I hope you’ll look it up. It’s on iBooks, Kobo, and Gardners books too.
Even if you’re not much interested in mountain flying, Hermann Geiger’s autobiographical “Alpine Pilot” is worth a read. Geiger is revered as the originator of European mountain landing and take-off techniques, though it may be that he was more aware of similar exploits in North America than he lets on.
The 1956 English translation of his book is available on Amazon from about six quid, depending on condition.
Hi,
You might be interested to read the free eBook I just published on the iBook Store.
It is called: “From Steam Gauges to Glass Cockpit”.
You will find a link here under.
Happy New Year.
Bajab
https://itunes.apple.com/be/book/steam-gauges-to-glass-cockpit/id1186916177?mt=11
[ This post was borderline-spam and was dropped into a barely-relevant thread, so I moved it here in case it interests someone – Peter ]
Just finished reading the re-print of Bill Lear: They Said It Couldn’t Be Done and couldn’t be more impressed with the man and what he accomplished. What a true go-getter and inventor he was, never afraid to roll up his sleeves and get the job done, or put his own money down when no one else did. What an inspiration! I feel that this type of person doesn’t exist much today – the tinkerer with a vision. It was a different time. It was no easy ride for him, however, which even more attests to his great character and dogged perseverance. For instance:
1. His fights with Vincent Bendix and Westinghouse who had the ear of the Air Signal Corps, despite having a terrible product. Shows us bureaucracy and favorism is nothing new in the military aviation world.
2. How the chief of the Signal Corps completely scr*wed Bill over, lied right to his face. And how Vincent Bendix tried to steal his company away from him with a shady merger and stock issuance.
3. How he managed to invent radios and car radios and autopilots. Which was much of the source of his early wealth that he subsequently almost squandered on Learjet.
4. His ongoing battles with Olive Ann Beech. Perhaps most interestingly, he accused Beech and all the Wichita manufacturers of not being at all innovative (ring a bell?), just selling the same old prop stuff over again with a different paint or interior. He gave them 18 months to try to build a personal jet or come up with something new, and when they didn’t, he did it himself.
5. How he managed to certify the Learjet 23 in less than a year, despite their main prototype crashing (due to FAA test pilot fault). Try that today, haha!
6. How nobody had ever done a pressurized door that opened outward before and thought he was mad for even attempting it. Btw, the same Lear door is also on the P180 Avanti.
7. How he almost brought back steam. In his case, even more forward thinking than most: the steam turbine ran a generator and the bus had an electric motor on each wheel. Something you’d expect to hear about now perhaps, but not in the 60’s.
Etc, etc.
A good read and lots of insight into the man. For me, from a purely aesthetic point of view, I can only gasp in awe at the design of the Learjet. The book does not specify who designed it, but I assume it was a group effort. It does say that Bill himself redesigned it last minute with a T-tail because he wasn’t happy with the old tail being in the jet exhaust. Anyway, this design, weather by a committee or not, has stayed virtually unchanged for 60 years, still looks fresh and pretty much set the visual gold standard for all business jets. Impressive legacy from a bunch of guys who basically were shooting from the hip..
Or as Bill Lear said himself about innovation and problem solving: “Don’t just nibble at the problem, take a big bite at it”.
If you enjoy stories about self made men and success-against-all-odds, with an aviation background, this is a good read.
Hello Adam,
following your review I will certainly read the book! And I agree with most of your points apart from this one:
AdamFrisch wrote:
Btw, the same Lear door is also on the P180 Avanti.
Below I post two pictures. The first one is the door of the original Learjet (the “24”). The second one is a Piaggio Avanti. Two doors can not be more different that that…
Good point and visually it seems you are right. But some of it must be because this guy talks quite extensively about it in this video from around 22:40 in. They were somehow involved in the early design of the P180. But maybe it’s just the bottom part?
Not GA, but I have read two really interesting books lately:
How Apollo flew to the moon
The Apollo guidance computer
To someone who is interested in technology, the overriding realisation is how much ingenuity went into that project, and how fascinating it must have been to be a part of the team.
Given that the thousands of people had to find other jobs in 1972 and onwards, it is completely unsurprising that the USA ended up being the world leader in most areas of technology for several decades afterwards.
I can very much recommend James Albright’s four books, the first one is:
Flight Lessons 1: Basic Flight
It is about the career of a US Airforce pilot from the basic training up to his retirement as LtCol of a VIP squadron. He obtained a 747 type rating at the age of 30, at Uncle Sams expense and now flies Gulfstreams all over the planet.
There is a lot of information, not only on the technicalities of flying, but also on CRM, leadership or lack thereof, styles of leaders, etc.
Lots of information on his website too: Code7700
