Flashback to 1981

Saturday, June 24, 2006 at 08:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The Lear Fan was an innovative aircraft, featuring advanced composite (carbon fiber) fuselage construction and state-of-the-art avionics for its time.
Its distinctive configuration utilized a brace of turboprops driving a single pusher propeller.
Despite its pioneering design, the aircraft's critical flaw was its gearbox, which proved to be its "Achilles' heel" and was never successfully resolved, preventing the configuration from working out.

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One of the autoclaves used to cure the Lear Fan’s carbon fiber fuselage.

The Lear Fan cockpit under construction. Avionics were state of the art for the day.

Composite construction and distinctive configuration set the Lear Fan apart.

It was the gearbox that proved to be the Lear Fan’s Achille’s heel. They never got it right.

A brace of turboprops driving a single pusher propeller was the concept.

Pratt & Whitney provided the ‘reliable engines,’ all right, but the configuration never worked out successfully.

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