William Lear Quotes
102 William Lear Quotes
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Let’s take one more look around.
William Lear
[On joining the navy at age 16 were he was a radio operator during World War I but leaving the navy after deciding it would] Take too long to become an admiral.
William Lear
[In August 1969 on both the oil and the auto industries becoming ‘fully cooperative’ in recent months.] Apparently they are beginning to realize that the new federal smog restrictions, getting tighter each year, will eventually make the internal combustion engine extinct.
William Lear
The big cars Detroit lives to make – because there is more profit in a big expensive car than in a cheap little one – will be nothing short of antisocial. They will have to convert to steam if they want to go on making big cars.
William Lear
The concentration of pollutants is about the same for a big car as a small one. But the volume of exhaust from a big car is much greater because ti has a bigger engine. This means that the man who can afford a big car contributes more smog than the man who drives a small car. That’s antisocial.
William Lear
[On the Lear Jet in January 1970] Every aircraft company in the world would have bet 10 – 1 against this plane.
William Lear
[In 1970] In my opinion, the internal combustion engine will never be satisfactory from a pollution standpoint. And the most undesirable emission is the one that is considered last – oxides of nitrogen.
William Lear
Steam and gas turbines are about equal as far as turning off pollution is concerned.
William Lear
I started out to build a steam car, because I had nothing better to do. All of a sudden I found out I was regarded as the saviour of the atmosphere. When somebody blows you up like that it gives you added responsibility, so no I’ve got to do it, goddammit. But I’ve never had so much fun with my clothes on, I’ll tell you that.
William Lear
[In 1970 to a group of Seattle citizens trying to combat air pollution by pressing for an efficient mass-transit system] Someone said the other day that Bill Lear doesn’t know all the answers. OK. But he sure knows the questions.
William Lear
[His last dying words to his wife Moya Lear on completing his last design the ‘Lear Fan 2100’] Finish it, Mommy.
William Lear
[To Moya Lear] Mom, be sure that airplane project goes forward.
William Lear
[On making the first car radio in 1928] It created some interest around the plant, but the general feeling was that radios in cars would never go over. The chief concern was that they would be legislated against for safety reasons.
William Lear
When I came to New York in 1932, it didn’t take me long to run out of money. It was a little early for the aviation radio business and by the spring of 1934 I was broke. At the time, all-wave sets had become the craze and I had an idea for a simplified manufacture of all-wave home radio receivers which I took to RCA. E.T. Cunningham then president of RCA Victor, expressed great enthusiasm for my proposal and bought the idea. He gave me a contract for $250,000 including $50,000 in cash calling for my services as a consultant over a period of several years. The development I brought to RCA later became known as the ‘Magic Brain.’
William Lear
[In 1956 on becoming the first man to fly a private plane to Moscow. Landing there on his birthday in the same year.] The Russians knew I was coming, but the Americans didn’t.
William Lear
[In 1965] A year ago we went into production of jets when I had my first two customers. Today, Lear Jets is more than $60,000,000 backordered.
William Lear
[On making his first fortune.] It happened in 1928… In the fall of 1928 I placed the first car radio ever built on Paul Galvin’s desk… Two weeks later, we made a 100 of them to see what would happen. Then, we made another 100, and then we were on our way to being in the car radio business. It was a year later – Black Friday, the day the bottom dropped out of the stock market – while Paul and I were en-route to a radio manufacturers’ convention in Atlantic City we came up with a name for our auto radio. We decided to call it Motorola.
William Lear
[On being told once by Jim Greenwood (Now vice president for Learjet) that he should go back to school to learn the meaning of the world ‘impossible.’] I don’t want to.
William Lear
Don’t take my word for it. Fly it yourself.
William Lear
There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than exactly what I’m doing now. If someone offered me $160 million for my company – about what it’s worth now – with the provision that I would have to retire, I’d spit in his eye. For me the best of life is the exercise of ingenuity – in design, in finance, in flying, in business. And that’s what I’m doing.
William Lear
Let’s get started!
William Lear
Go ahead – full speed!
William Lear
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