A 2013 return to the Learjet Wichita campus reveals significant expansion

Twelfth in an occasional series of columns

By 2013 I had visited the Learjet campus in Wichita only once in the past 18 years. Having resigned our firm’s public relations and advertising relationship with the company in 1985, there just was no reason. The single exception was in 2007–2008 while I was serving as interim CEO of the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition (GWEDC).

Back then, I led a small group of local governmental and business leaders calling on senior management of each of the community’s five major aerospace companies to ascertain how GWEDC might be able to assist them achieve their growth plans for the future that all were considering at that time.

As it turned out, the timing was not the best, as the impending economic downturn soon sent each scurrying to hold its own, rather than accelerate growth.

But 2013 brought the 50th anniversary of the Oct 7, 1963 first flight of the Learjet. And to its credit, Bombardier Learjet made a pretty big deal out of the milestone.

Among the activities, its PR arm produced a series of very interesting newsletters highlighting the earliest days of the company, and asked me to write one of the accounts: “Making the word Learjet synonymous with the term business jet.”

During this brief activity I was asked to “come out for a look around.” In a word, I was astonished at the growth of the Learjet campus facilities. The walk through of new building after new building, at least from my reference, was dramatic. Where “in my day” the complex consisted of four Butler-type buildings strung in a line adjacent to a tarmac with a single service center building (facing), this was a whole new world of modern, well-lighted and equipped manufacturing, flight test and servicing facilities.

Its focus is not only on the Learjet product line, but the facility also serves as a flight testing center for all Bombardier aircraft built in Canada. I’ve learned the Wichita Bombardier Flight Test Center has supported 26 development and certification programs since 1995, spanning 15,000 test flights.

In its 55 years in Wichita, Learjet has had four owners: Bill Lear, The Gates Rubber Company, Integrated Resources (a venture capital group) and Bombardier. The first three were undercapitalized to achieve what needed to be done to both provide R&D capital for product development and cash to sustain the organization through the rough patches.

During these first nearly three decades of various ownerships, this lack of sufficient capital was a real problem for the firm. My take on this challenge was that a lesser product would not have survived the unavoidable marginal assistance occasionally imposed by its ownership. But the Learjet was never a “lesser product.”

I’m aware there are rumors that Bombardier might be of a mood to put Learjet up for sale. I certainly have zero insight into that issue.

But, from what I was able to observe during two fairly recent visits to Learjet in Wichita – including attending a delivery ceremony of the 3000th Learjet in June 2017 – since acquiring the company in 1990, Bombardier has been very good to both the product line and the community.

And certainly the company’s line up of facilities in Tucson, Arizona, built 40 years ago during the Gates Rubber era, is impressive as well. Additionally, Bombardier Learjet operates services centers in five U.S. locales.

Without question, Beech and Cessna (now Textron Aviation) as well as Bombardier Learjet will continue to have periodic challenges, as will the business aviation industry in which they participate and compete.

But each is an organization built from strength, and it’s been my distinct pleasure to have worked for all three of these global gems.