More than 3,240 Learjets were manufactured between 1963 and 2021. Learjet was one of the first companies to manufacture a private, luxury aircraft.
Over the years, the name of the company building the jets changed several times, but the aircraft has always been one of the most recognizable in the skies and a benchmark for business jets subsequently developed and built.
Since the original Learjet 23, a six or eight-seat variant sharing the same engines as the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter and T-38 Talon trainer, engine, wing, and fuselage refinements have yielded no less than 14 models. Thanks to YouTubers Documentary Nation for uploading this excellent profile of the Learjet factory.
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Learjet manufactured its jets in Wichita, Kansas, ever since the first jet rolled off the assembly line. The United States Air Force (USAF) operates the Learjet 35A, designated as the C-21A. Learjets have appeared in feature films such as Universal’s 2008 film Frost/Nixon, Universal’s Airport 1975 (1974), Paramount’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), ITC’s Capricorn One (1977), Universal’s Dragnet (1987), Columbia’s S.W.A.T. (2003), and many more.
Famous Learjet distributor and owner Clay Lacy has used Learjets and the revolutionary Astrovision camera system to film well-known and often-seen air-to-air aviation sequences for decades.
Bombardier acquired Learjet in 1990, introducing several new models, including the Learjet 60, 45, and the all-composite Learjet 85, which was later canceled in 2015. In 2021, Bombardier announced the end of Learjet production after nearly 60 years and more than 3,000 aircraft built, delivering its final Learjet 75 in March 2022.
